A Simple Twist Of Fate
by Starway Man
Summary: Cordelia was never supposed to come back to Sunnydale after Graduation. But what if, thanks to Xander, she did? COMPLETE
1. Homecoming

**Date written: **Sun 9 Dec 2007

**Authors:** Starway Man and Nodakskip

**Emails: **theop at kew dot hotkey dot net dot au, Nodakskip at aol dot com

**Disclaimer: **We don't own anything to do with Buffy or Angel, Joss et al. owns all of that. Those parts of this story taken from the show episodes belong to the various writers in question. All references to James Bond and the relevant books and movies belong to Ian Fleming, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and United Artists. We get nothing by writing this, except maybe some kind words of encouragement and a few cheers...well, at least hopefully.

**Warnings:** Character death, some violence and sexual references are present in this fanfic.

**Rating:** R to be safe

**Symbols: **" " indicate speech, ( _italics _) indicate thoughts, and ( **bold** ) indicate translated words

**Classification: **AU, Crossover

**Setting:** BtVS Season 4

**Main characters: **Ensemble

**Feedback:** Yes please!!!!!

**Acknowledgments: **Thanks to Buffyworld for making available the various show transcripts. Thanks too to Greywizard and Francis Eugene for beta reading this, without their invaluable input it wouldn't even be half as good as it is now.

**Summary: **Cordelia was never supposed to come back to Sunnydale after Graduation. But what if, thanks to Xander, she did?

**Title:** A Simple Twist Of Fate

* * *

C: "Why are these terrible things always happening to me?" 

X: "Karma!"

(Cordelia Chase and Xander Harris, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)

"Ah, youth. Is there anything more magical? A time of first loves, great discoveries..."

(Lorne, ANGEL)

G: "And this charming motto of the line, 'the world is not enough'. You do not wish to have the right to it?"

J: "It is an excellent motto which I shall certainly adopt."

(Griffon Or and James Bond, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE)

* * *

**Part One: Homecoming**

**Shadyhill Cemetery, Sunnydale, California**

**September 26th, 1999**

**10:00 pm**

Buffy Summers, Sunnydale's resident Vampire Slayer, was talking with her best friend Willow Rosenberg as they sat around waiting for a vampire to rise from its grave. The blonde Chosen One was semi-complaining, "It's been one heck of a slay-heavy summer, Will. My bad, but I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about life at UC Sunnydale."Willow nodded, examining the course booklet she had brought along tonight. "It's exciting, though, isn't it? Buffy, we're finally starting college!"

"Yeah," Buffy was quick to agree. "It's just, y'know, gonna be a bit of an adjustment."

"Yeah, 'cause it's like five miles away from where we used to attend high school. Totally uncharted territory," Willow said with an extra big dose of sarcasm.

Buffy decided to change the subject. "It's too bad Giles can't be librarian there, like in the days of yore. That woulda been convenient."

The redhead nodded, thinking about Buffy's former Watcher. "I saw him just the other day, actually. He said that he's enjoying being a gentleman of leisure."

The Chosen One wrinkled her nose. "Gentleman of leisure? Isn't that just stuffy-speak for being unemployed?"

Willow couldn't argue with that. "Uh-huh, he's pretty much just a slacker now."

"Speaking of slack, have you heard anything lately from Xander?"

Miss Rosenberg frowned. "No. Just a few postcards here and there." She then recalled, "Before he left on his road trip, he did say that he wasn't coming home 'til he'd driven to all 50 states."

Buffy giggled. "Did you explain about Hawaii?"

"I wanted to, but he seemed so determined. Besides, impending apocalypse with huge Mayor-snake and all."

Buffy nodded. "Well, I hope he gets back soon. It'd be good to have the whole gang back together." She turned around to look at the grave, apparently unaware that the vampire had already risen and departed off into the night. "Is this guy ever gonna wake up?"

* * *

**Underneath Lowell House, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**September 30th, 1999**

**3:01 am**

Freshman year had started, and Buffy had found that college was pretty much just like high school, once she had finally gotten out of her first-day funk and kicked the ass of an undead bitch named Sunday. The rest of Sunday's gang had been annihilated as well, apart from one survivor who'd been captured by three masked men with tasers and tranq rifles, and brought down to their lab.

"Retinal scan accepted," a computerised voice said as a green laser beam flashed across the trio's eyes.

One of the men said, "Requesting access to the holding facility."

"Initiative vocal code match. Special Agent Finn, Riley. Identity number 75329." The computer unlocked the door and the men carried in the unconscious vampire before removing their masks.

"Man," the African-American named Forrest Gates said. "Am I glad to finally get that thing off. How the hell did Batman and Robin ever stand wearing them all the time?"

The comparison was somewhat apt as he and his fellow agent, Graham Miller, handed off the bloodsucker to the nearest convenient lab-coat. The underground research facility was huge, very much like the Batcave, as men and women scurried about. The operation was still fairly new though and some parts still weren't fully operational yet.

"Ow!" yelped a technician as sparks flew from what looked like a blaster weapon.

"Be careful with that! We still haven't received the new models we were promised yet," the woman in charge named Maggie Walsh said sharply, unconcerned about her minion's physical health. Walsh spied Riley, a typical corn-fed Midwestern All-American poster-boy, and so she rapped out, "Report, agent."

Riley instantly came to attention. "Our first patrol went just like practice drills, ma'am. Sweep and search, thorough and fast. We bagged ourselves a HST, a hostile sub-terrestrial-"

"I know what a HST is, agent," Maggie snapped.

"Sorry, Dr. Walsh. But we got the job done and we're ready for more," Riley Finn said proudly, looking at his teammates.

Finally Maggie allowed her grim demeanour to vanish. "I'm glad to hear it. All right, brief Teams B and C on your mission, we'll be sending them out next. Because from what we know, gentlemen, this area of California is crawling with the hostiles. Thus, according to our mandate, we need to start cleaning up the neighborhood fast."

The truth was, though, it mattered nothing to this woman that the Initiative's mandate of protecting U.S. citizens was as much a priority as harnessing the power of the supernatural world for the country's military interests. In her mind, Maggie Walsh had worked too long and too hard, fighting for every penny of funding, kissing up to too many generals and too many Congressmen, to ever let a little thing like that stand in the way of her own ambitions.

Maggie dismissed the three agents before she headed off to the classified area known as 314. Her work on the prototype known as "Adam" had barely begun.

* * *

**UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California**

**October 25th, 1999**

**2:15 pm**

Buffy Anne Summers had definitely known better times in her life thus far.

There was that business of having her soul sucked out by her former demon roommate, the so-called "Kathy Newman". Luckily for her, Giles and her friends had reversed the spell and her dad had dragged the undercover demoness home. But the real horror was learning Cordelia Chase had returned to the Hellmouth.

Xander had finally arrived back in Sunnydale not long ago, which was excellent news of course, but he had brought his ex-girlfriend with him, and that was not nearly as excellent news. The pair had subsequently moved into an apartment together thanks to some help from Cordelia's cousin Tim, and there had been nothing the Chosen One could do to convince Harris what a bad idea that was.

A nasty fight had taken place between Miss Summers and Miss Chase over what exactly the brunette's intentions towards Xander were, and why precisely she had returned home with him. Right now Buffy couldn't stand the fact that a) her best male friend was shacked up with an obnoxious bitch, and b) since Xander had been in Cordelia's company for the past three months and they hadn't killed each other yet, he wasn't likely to ditch her anytime soon.

( _Maybe Willow's right. I just gotta be a big Buffy, suck it up and deal, _) the Slayer thought to herself. ( _But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Or her._ )

And as if things couldn't get worse, Buffy had learned that Spike, a.k.a. William the Bloody, was back in la Boca del Infierno as well.

A slayer of two Slayers, this particular British vampire was a thorn in Buffy's side she honestly hadn't been expecting to ever return to Sunnydale. The Chosen One had believed that after his drunken fiasco last year Spike really did go off to South America to find his sire, Drusilla, and those two would have made up or something. Instead he had turned out to be the boyfriend that the busty blonde now-soulless vampire known as Harmony Kendall had been boasting about when they'd all met during a college party at the Wolfhouse.

( _What does Spike even see in that tramp?_ ) the Summers asked herself as she walked to her afternoon class. Then she frowned in distaste. ( _Probably the exact same thing Xander sees in Cordelia. Ugh, men. This world would be a much better place without 'em!_ )

"Well, don't you look good enough to eat?" a male voice with a horribly familiar accent said, just before a fist in her face made Buffy see stars.

The Slayer ended up on the ground while Spike stood above her – somehow, impossibly – right in the middle of a beam of sunlight. Buffy jumped up, and after a few pointless quips and banter, they fought until her stake was embedded into the British vampire's heart.

( _What the hell-?_ ) Buffy withdrew the weapon and watched the wound on his chest heal right in front of her. ( _And he's standing in the sunlight. How?_ )

"The Gem of Amara, pet." Spike boasted with a grin as he held up his right hand containing a green gemstone on a ring, an artifact that made any vampire immune to the weaknesses of the undead. William the Bloody then backhanded Buffy viciously, whereupon she hit the ground once more. "Official sponsor of my killing you."

He vamped out and went all out for the kill. A terrible battle took place until the Chosen One finally managed to side-slip a roundhouse, pin the arm, and yank the ring off Spike's finger. Spike's face instantly contorted into a visage of pain. He started to smoke and burn and scrambled off screaming in agony, only just making it down into the sewers before erupting in flames.

"Another time," the Slayer said to herself wearily, putting the Gem away and looking around for the rest of her stuff. "Another time, Spike, I promise you."

Her limbs aching, Buffy Summers finally limped off to class. ( _Now, what do I do about this Gem?_ )

* * *

**Outside the Bronze, Sunnydale, California**

**Later that night**

Cordelia Chase stared at the nightclub which, during her high school princess days, she had held court in so often it had almost become her home away from home. The young woman knew that eventually she would have to go in there and face her ex-minions, but she wasn't sure if tonight was the best time to do that.

After all, just how was she supposed to weather the scorn from her rich acquaintances? It was a big step down for her, going from Queen C to one of the peons she used to ridicule in the old days. ( _God. How did I even get here?_ )

It was an interesting question, to be sure.

Cordelia had left town with her former classmate Xander Harris, taking him up on an offer to drive to Los Angeles so that she could save some money on bus fare. Sometimes the brunette found it difficult to believe she had even accepted the offer, but Cordy had to admit to herself she had been feeling slightly less hate for her ex-boyfriend back then, especially after his 'apology' at the Prom.

It still didn't mean all had been forgiven in Miss Chase's opinion, and to her eternal consternation, her life had actually begun to suck more after leaving the Hellmouth and not get better as she had naturally assumed it would.

Cordelia and Xander had eventually arrived in Los Angeles after quite a number of mishaps, and the kindness of strangers in Oxnard. Cordy had subsequently tried to break into the movie and TV business as she'd always longed to do. With Xander's help she'd landed a role in a play, thinking it might be her big break, a chance to get discovered.

And for a while, things had been looking up...

Unfortunately though, the play had closed after less than two weeks when it was discovered the male lead was heavily into drugs and one of the supporting cast got arrested for the assault and battery of a prostitute. The negative publicity, along with her complete lack of acting talent, effectively finished off Cordelia's showbiz career. Everyone who was anyone in Hollywood started treating Miss Chase as if she was a leper.

At that point Xander hadn't been able to leave LA and just abandon his ex-girlfriend to her fate, just like previously he hadn't been able to depart the City of Angels and continue with his road trip. The so-called White Knight simply couldn't leave one of his girls in the lurch like that, even if Cordy no longer considered herself to be a member of that group. A practical young woman at heart, once she'd gotten over the trauma and accepted that she wouldn't be making any money as an actress, Cordelia had finally given in to the continuos impassioned pleas from Xander that they should just go home to Sunnydale.

"Cordelia? Oh my God, it's really you!"

Miss Chase whirled around. "Aura," she stated carefully, not sure what sort of reception she'd get from this particular individual.

The dark-skinned girl quickly grabbed Cordelia into a hug though, usually a sure sign of friendship. "What are you doing here? I thought you left town for good!"

"I did. But, uh, I decided to come back," Cordy said hesitantly, as Aura dragged her towards the front door. "It was just...a whim, really. Guess I missed the old home town too much."

"I thought you once said, though, that you would kill to be so close to that many shoes in LA?" Aura asked in confusion as she paid the cover charge and they went inside the Bronze.

"Yeah. But you can get too much of a good thing in the big city," Cordy muttered, her second lie coming out of her mouth tonight. "Oh, let me pay you back for-"

"Forget it, it's on me," Aura dismissed her offer to pay for the entry fee. "So, spill. What's been going on with you lately?"

Cordelia wasn't sure if she could trust Aura with the news that she was now poor and sharing the rent with her cheater ex-boyfriend. She never got the chance to say anything however as the former Cordettes all converged on the female pair, fake smiles and smarmy expressions on their spoiled, suntanned features.

"Well, look who's here!" Aphrodesia Kingsbury said snidely. "Cordelia Chase, as I live and breathe. What are you doing here amongst us...oh, what was it you called Harmony that one time? Sheep?"

"That's right," the girl known as Kate nodded her head. "Airheaded sheep, I believe she said. Big words, coming from someone whose father is in prison for tax fraud."

"And whose mother is dedicating herself to a series of drunken affairs, according to all the gossip lately," laughed the third girl named Joy.

For a moment Aura looked stunned, staring at Cordelia in disbelief. Then she said to the others, "Hey, come on, I thought we were all friends back in high school!"

"Yeah, right," Joy told her. "Newsflash, Aura, but deep down the rest of us all thought Cordelia was an uncaring, insensitive, snotty, shallow bitch."

( _Why is she even here, damn it? Shouldn't these shrews be off finding rich husbands at some Ivy League college?_ ) Cordelia fumed. She wanted to either lash out or find a deep hole and crawl into it for the rest of her life.

But as Fate would have it, divine intervention occurred in the form of her new roommate, Xander. "Well, hello everybody. Now I find myself looking at you three ladies, and so I gotta ask: why's it feel like someone's just completely sucked the life out of the room?" Harris said to the group, distracting the evil trio from further tormenting Cordelia.

"Beat it, you loser," Aphrodesia said, disgusted at actually deigning to speak to a guy she'd always despised during high school.

"Yeah. This conversation is reserved for people who have a future working somewhere other than Doublemeat Palace," Joy sneered.

"Not to mention people who actually have a fashion sense," Kate added.

"Now I'm hurt. Oh wait, no I'm not. Anyone would think you'd completely forgotten about a huge snake at Graduation, and how I helped save all your lives then. So would you girls like me to arrange for a meeting with, oh how shall I put this, another Sunnydale special?" Xander asked, a hint of steel appearing in his voice.

Aphrodesia, Joy and Kate moved away from him at once. Xander might have been an ostracized outcast, but he also travelled in the orbit of the class protector, Buffy Summers, and everyone knew when to back off if he ever played that card. Even these three spoiled lemmings understood that.

"Later, you moron," Aphrodesia scoffed as she turned away.

"Dweeb," "Dork," Kate and Joy echoed as they all left, getting in a parting shot at Cordelia as they knew how she had called Xander such names nearly all her life.

Aura just stared at her female friend. "Cordelia?"

"Yeah, what they said, it's all true. And I'm broke now, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?" Miss Chase snapped, lashing out at precisely the wrong person. "I'm so down and out, I'm even reduced to sharing an apartment with Xander!"

Aura just shook her head in disappointment as she left as well. Harris came over to his ex-girlfriend and asked, "You okay?"

"Am I okay, he asks. Well, do I LOOK okay?" Cordelia snarled.

"Sorry. I was just concerned," Xander said softly.

"Yeah, whatever. Why did I ever let you talk me into coming back to this one-Starbucks hellhole?" she wanted to know.

Xander shrugged, apparently thinking it over. Then he said, "You couldn't pay the rent in our charming little hovel all alone?"

"More like I couldn't..." Miss Chase trailed off, glimpsing someone she knew. "Harmony?"

Xander whirled around, desperately looking for the blonde, because he knew that Harmony Kendall was a vampire now. She had recently attempted to bite Willow in the parking lot of the Bronze. "There she is!!" Xander yanked out the stake from his pocket and gave chase.

Cursing softly, Cordelia followed after him. ( _God, we're back in Sunnydale for like five minutes, and it's just like high school all over again!_ )

They raced out of the club's rear entrance, only to behold the grisly sight of Harmony dropping Joy's corpse to the ground in the alley, completely drained of blood. Aura was standing a few feet away, staring at her undead former classmate, unable to believe what she'd just witnessed.

"Hi, Cordelia!" Harmony morphed into her human mask and waved like a complete airhead, as if she hadn't just gotten caught red-handed murdering a human being. Then the blonde stared at Harris and got a disgusted look on her face. "Eww, Xander, what are you doing here? She dumped your loser ass nearly a year ago!"

"You just...you just killed Joy," Cordelia stared in shock at the dead body.

"Well, so what? She was always a complete bitch to me anyway," Harmony said, unable to feel any guilt due to the lack of a soul. "Anyway, what's new?"

"I, I'm dreaming, that's gotta be it. This cannot be happening," Aura told herself, trying desperately to cling to sanity and denial.

"Harmony, I have only two things to say. One, you've got an appointment with a Dust Buster. And two, you became Spike's girlfriend? What, did he lose a bet or something?" Xander advanced forward, stake raised.

"Hey, now don't you talk that way about my blondie bear!" Harmony went back into game face and the fight was on. The female vampire was still very young and yet to master her full capabilities, and that was almost certainly the reason why Xander wasn't killed within the first thirty seconds of the battle. Nonetheless, Harmony had more strength and stamina than the human, and when Xander was on the ground and helpless she roared and came lunging down towards his neck.

Only to get hit on the head with a metal trashcan lid, knocking her away to the side.

"Cordelia, what do you think you're doing?" the vampiric Miss Kendall demanded of Miss Chase as Xander scrambled up. "You just hit me!"

"Well, duh!" Cordelia instinctively used the superior tone of voice she had always utilised back in the day to keep her second-in-command in line. "You were going to kill Xander. Just like you did with Joy."

"Yeah, so? After what he did to you, you should be on my side..." Harmony suddenly had an epiphany, a true marvel especially when she was concerned. "Oh, no! Cordelia, you didn't. You wouldn't. You couldn't! You...and him?"

"Hey, hey, hey! We're not together, together," Miss Chase said a little defensively, glancing momentarily at Aura – who was still acting as if she was trapped in the middle of a nightmare.

"But...?" Harmony pressed the point.

Cordy didn't want to admit it, but finally did so. "Me and Xander are staying at the same apartment so that we can share the expenses and save up some money-"

"Oh, but that's how it always starts," Harmony resumed her human features as she began to rant. "God, you think I can't tell what you two are eventually gonna get up to? This horse's ass is gonna get you pregnant with a special needs child before you even know it-"

"HEY!" both Xander and Cordelia shouted out at the same time, albeit for different reasons.

"See, you're already doing that thing with each other's sentences," Harmony whined. "Forget it, I'm outta here." And with vampiric super-speed, she vanished out of the alley.

Aura stuttered, "W-what...what just happened?"

"Harmony's a vampire, and she murdered Joy. Now she's gone," Cordy summarized it.

Aura babbled, "This isn't...I mean I, I thought that thing at Graduation was it...we all did!"

Xander shook his head and found it was aching more than a little. "Nope, Graduation was kind of a normal day around here, sadly enough. Well, okay, it was a bit more public than your average Sunnydale apocalypse, but apart from that – pretty much business as usual."

Aura was obviously still struggling with all this. "And Harmony really is a, a vampire now? H-how did that happen?"

Cordy replied sadly, "She probably got turned at Graduation. I never saw her afterwards."

Aura just couldn't deal with all this anymore, so without another word she ran back into the Bronze, trying with all her might to repress. Cordelia watched her go and said, "I don't think she's gonna be calling me anytime soon, for us to meet up at the Espresso Pump or anything."

"Come on, let's go. We need to tell Buffy and Giles about what just happened." Xander appeared to be in some distress, the fight with the vampiress had obviously been harder on him than he'd first thought.

( _Oh, joy. Like my evening's not complete without talking to the slacker and Miss I'm-So-Full-Of-Myself._ ) "Well, then, I'm driving. Gimme your keys," Cordelia said firmly, seeing his new grimace.

"Uh, Cordy-"

"Hey, you so much as make one wisecrack about my driving skills, and the next time I'll let Harmony kill you!" Cordy bristled.

"Right, right. And uh, I think you saved my life just now, Cor," Xander said humbly as they started walking towards his uncle's car. "Thank you. I really mean it."

( _Hmm, I guess I did save his lame ass at that. Huh. Well, then I guess I've done my good deed for the year._ ) "You're welcome."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" Miss Chase asked in confusion.

"Everything. Last year. Willow," Xander said simply as they arrived at the parking lot. "Since Harmony brought up the subject I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened to you because of me. And I always will be."

The old hurt enveloped Cordelia all over again, but she quickly shook it off. Presently she said, "I must be completely out of my mind for saying this, but...apology accepted. And if you ever tell anybody I actually said that, then I'll kill you myself – and that's just for starters!"

As Cordelia started the '57 Chevy, Xander just nodded silently. ( _One step at a time,_ ) he thought to himself hopefully. ( _I mean, there is such a thing as forgiveness, isn't there? _)

TBC...


	2. Halloween Two point Oh

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, and please, keep 'em coming. By the way, if any of you are thinking of painting a house in the boiling summer heat and then having quite a few beers on New Year's Eve to relax? Trust me, the next day you'll pay for it.

* * *

**Part Two: Halloween 2.0**

**Lowell House, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**October 31st, 1999**

**2:54 pm**

It was that time of year known as All Hallow's Eve, and whilst most of the Scooby gang was preparing to attend a Halloween party at the UC Sunnydale Alpha Delta fraternity house, Buffy was talking to Riley Finn about her late assignments for Psych 101.

"You've got to be aware how your work's taken a little downturn lately. I can't remember the last time I've seen your hand up in class," the undercover Initiative agent said to the Slayer.

"Does stretching count?" Buffy asked somewhat forlornly.

Riley shook his head. "Look, things get pretty intense freshman year, as I dimly recall. Lemme guess – too much fun, or not enough?"

Miss Summers paused for a beat. "Both, actually."

Riley just handed her the paperwork for the class she'd missed. "Well, you just gotta keep your priorities straight. Trust me, Professor Walsh is worth your time."

Buffy nodded. "Right. Well, thanks. I'll get this done tonight."

Finn looked surprised. "Tonight? It's Halloween, Buffy. You're not going to dress up and party on a weekend night?"

"Yeah, but I'll get this done first. Like you said, priorities," Buffy answered. "And hey, thanks for the pep talk, coach."

Riley smiled at the tiny blonde he found himself rather attracted to. "You're welcome."

Buffy quickly left him behind. Not long after, she encountered Cordelia elsewhere on campus. "What are you doing here?" the Slayer asked in surprise.

"Looking for you or Willow," Cordy said, as they came to a halt on one of the grassy areas. "This frat party we're supposed to attend tonight. Apparently costumes are required?"

"Oh, yeah. They are," Miss Summers replied vaguely. "I, I'd forgotten about that."

Cordelia's eyes bored into Buffy's like lasers. "God, what is with you these days? If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were on drugs or something!"

Buffy scowled. "Well, thanks for that vote of confidence. Really."

"I mean it, Buffy! Have you even looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" Miss Chase criticized. "The skin and the hair, only one step away from the street urchin look. And the clothes you've got on. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that halter top!"

It was precisely the wrong thing for Tact Girl to say to a young woman possessed of a short temper and Slayer super-strength. "Now I remember why Xander always used to make those jokes about you and hooker-wear. Apart from the obvious, y'know, I still can't figure out what the hell he ever saw in you in the first place!"

Cordelia cocked her head slightly, as the stakes of the game went up a notch. Her inner bitch came out and she smiled coldly, "We've had this conversation before. I told you then how Xander could have built himself a life in LA even without my help, and I would have helped the big dorkhead if he'd wanted me to. But no, he wanted to come back to home sweet Hellmouth because of Willow – and you. The hopeless idiot simply can't see how there's more to life than hanging with someone who actually preferred a vampire to him. But I figure he'll wise up eventually. 'Cause not even Xander can remain that stupid forever, don't you think?"

Buffy simply glared at her as Cordelia turned and walked away, without even waiting for a reply. After Graduation they hadn't parted as friends, but neither had they parted as enemies. However ever since the brunette had come back to the Hellmouth and that big fight over her roommate, it was becoming obvious Sunnydale just wasn't big enough for both Buffy Summers and Cordelia Chase.

* * *

**The Espresso Pump, Sunnydale, California**

**Not long after sunset**

What appeared to be two ordinary women talking in the busy coffee shop were actually one woman and one vengeance demon, whose names were Anya and Halfrek.

"God, this is depressing," Miss Jenkins said to her demon friend, who had her human mask on. The former Anyanka looked around at all the holiday decorations and said, "An inane ritual celebrated by a bunch of mortal fools who have no idea that they're actually living on the mouth of Hell. What did I ever do to deserve this?"

"Listen, sweetie. You lost your powers, it happens. But if you want D'hoffryn to give you your amulet back before your mortal body ages and rots, you're going to have to do a lot more than just sit here and whine to me about it," Halfrek told her.

"Oh please, Hallie, that's easy for you to say," Anya retorted. "I mean, of course I want my powers back, but it isn't that simple. You have no idea what it's like having to live as a mortal, the things I have to do just to survive from one day to the next. Plus, I have all these stupid human feelings which I can't get rid of. I've been obsessing lately about finding a suitable mate to provide me with a brood of squalling children!"

"Oh, yes, you've mentioned something about that before. But didn't you try to get it out of your system by having meaningless sex with some mortal or another?" Halfrek asked.

"I tried," Anya looked exasperated. "But I just ended up completely contemptuous of every libidinous male I ever came across. Well there was one guy, Xander Harris, the reason I was summoned to this damned town in the first place, maybe he would have been okay. But that stupid ex-client of mine goes crawling back to him? Unbelievable."

"Look, Anya, you know how we go way back. And I've always kind of looked up to you; you were the most dedicated vengeance demon D'hoffryn ever recruited, and we both know it. I mean, remember Mrs. Czolgosz?" Halfrek asked.

Anya was instantly reminded of the wife of the man who had assassinated President McKinley 98 years ago, and smiled. "Hmm. Yeah. Those were the days."

"I'm just saying, the Anyanka I knew who engineered something like that wouldn't just be taking this lying down. It's been nearly a year; exactly how long is D'hoffryn supposed to wait for you to take the initiative?" the demoness asked.

That only served to make Anya annoyed. "So, what are you saying – this is an intervention of some sort? Shouldn't all my demon friends be here, then?"

Halfrek took a sip from her cappuccino as she casually shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that's the thing...until you get your powers back? Apart from me, none of them think that you really matter anymore."

* * *

**The Jenkins residence, Sunnydale, California**

**A short while later**

Anya had come home after parting company with her demon friend, apparently the only real friend she had left, much to her chagrin. On the way here she'd had an idea with regard to 'taking the initiative', as Halfrek had put it. So the woman born in 9th century Sweden started getting busy.

She drew a circle on the floor of her living room, making a mental note to buy some industrial-strength carpet cleaner tomorrow morning if this didn't work out like she hoped it would. Anya then poured sand into the circle, and started chanting in Latin whilst gripping an ancient parchment.

"Kelkoris, exaudi meam causam. In tenebris invoco, fiat hoc spatium porta ad mundum Abraxis." ( **Kelkor, hear my plea. I summon thee, let this space be now a gateway to the world of Abrax.** )

The paper ignited and there was a big explosion with bright sparks, as a hole in reality opened up in the air before her. Past the burning edges of the portal could be seen the turbulent, blood-red sky of a hostile demon dimension. Anya gulped nervously, ( _Where the heck is he?_ )

Right on cue a green-skinned and red-eyed demon flew headfirst through the portal. As he rolled to his feet the interdimensional gateway vanished. "What's going on here-?" he started to say, before the demon spied who'd summoned him. "Anyanka? Is that you?"

"Not quite. I'm human now, so the name's Anya," the former demoness replied testily, wanting to get the small talk over with. "For the moment, anyway."

Kelkor the mischief demon raised his eyebrows. "Well, how the mighty have fallen. Someone finally smashed your amulet, did they?"

"Ancient history," Anya growled. "Now I need your help, Kelkor, so I'm calling in that marker you owe me. You remember, when I saved you from getting imprisoned inside that book by those fifteenth century Italian monks?"

The demon hadn't forgotten. "What did you have in mind?"

Anya smiled, but there was no warmth in it at all. "Nothing fancy, just a little something to impress D'hoffryn."

* * *

**UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California**

**Later that night**

Buffy, dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood, was standing with a basket in her hands as she waited for her friends to join her. The outfit had been a last-minute gift from her mother Joyce, who'd been pleased to once again see her little girl dressing up in her favorite childhood Halloween costume.

Xander walked up behind Buffy wearing a tuxedo. "Hey, Red. What you got in the basket, little girl?"

"Weapons."

That instantly killed the mood as far as Xander was concerned. "Oh."

Buffy shrugged, "It's just in case. Liking the tux, Xander."

Xander nodded. "Bond. James Bond. Insurance, you know, in case we get turned into our costumes again. I'm going for cool, secret agent guy."

Buffy stifled a giggle. "I hate to break it to you, but you'll probably end up cool head waiter guy."

Harris didn't let that bother him. "As long as I'm cool and wield some kind of power."

"And on that day the whole world will shudder in fear," Cordelia said as she joined them, having stopped to fix her makeup a few paces back. "Nice costume, Buffy."

"Likewise," Buffy gritted out, trying to be civil for Xander's sake. She stared at the blue Haitian dress. "Who are you supposed to be, anyway?"

"See, I told you I should have gone with the Cleopatra outfit!" Cordelia said huffily, smacking Xander on the arm.

"No way, sweetheart!" he said. Buffy momentarily cringed at his easy use of the endearment; Xander didn't notice, even if Cordy did, and the young man subsequently told the Slayer, "Buff, let me present to you one of the most beautiful Bond girls ever to grace the big screen. Simone Latrelle, otherwise known as Solitaire, at your service."

"Who?"

"You know, the psychic girl in 'Live And Let Die'!" Xander informed her. He sighed, "The voodoo gal played by Jane Seymour?"

"Only as long as she remained a virgin, apparently," Cordelia shrugged. "Well, it was better than dressing up as the ones called Pussy Galore or Holly Goodhead!"

Buffy made a face at the double entendre. At that moment, Willow and her boyfriend Daniel 'Oz' Osborne joined the trio and the blonde Slayer said happily, "Will. Medieval Will."

Xander smiled. "Hail, ye olde – varlotty – thou."

Cordelia inspected her former classmate intensely. "So who are you supposed to be?"

Willow grinned, "I'm Joan of Arc. 'Cause I figured we had a lot in common, seeing as how I was almost burned at the stake that one time, and plus she had that close relationship with God."

( _Hang on,_ ) Xander thought to himself in confusion. ( _What's that last part got to do with anything?_ ) Frowning he turned and said to Oz, "And you are?"

Oz pulled his jacket open to reveal a nametag with 'God' on it.

Xander shook his head, as the group started to walk off together towards the frat house. "Of course. I wish I'd thought of that."

Oz said, "Blasphemer."

"All I can say is, does everyone remember what happened two years ago? Because I'm telling you right now, if you people turn into your costumes again, don't expect me to save you," Cordelia told the others. "If Spike or whoever shows up, I'm not going to play hero. That's for sure."

Willow brushed that aside impatiently and put an arm around Buffy. "We're going to have the best time tonight. I promise!"

As the Slayer and her entourage neared the fraternity house, with Buffy feeling more and more like a fifth wheel in the midst of the group, Kelkor rubbed his hands together in glee. He had been eavesdropping from behind some nearby trees, and suddenly knew exactly what to do to both fulfil his obligation to Anya and carry out his duty as a mischief demon at the same time.

* * *

**Alpha Delta Fraternity House, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**A few minutes later**

Just as Kelkor finished the ritual to turn the Scooby gang into their costumes, the mischief demon suddenly realized he had badly miscalculated on some very important matters.

For one thing, he had not called upon an entity like Janus to empower his spell. Thus the demon was at the mercy at whatever magical backlash could and would occur. Also, turning four of the teenagers into their fictional characters wasn't too great a strain, but trying to turn Oz into God...

Well, it simply wasn't possible. Thus, as they walked along in the haunted house maze, Xander became James Bond, Cordelia became Solitaire, Willow became Joan of Arc, and Buffy became Little Red Riding Hood. But Daniel Osborne did NOT become the Father of All Creation.

Kelkor screamed in incredible pain as he ran out of the fraternity house, just moments before the resident fear demon Gachnar sealed off the building from the outside world as it attempted to physically manifest. Instead of becoming the Divine Creator the werewolf had phased out of reality by this point, disappearing from view. Oz could only watch helplessly as his possessed friends flailed about, wondering what was going on.

James Bond shook his head, trying to figure out what had happened. A moment ago he had been in a New York alley, rescued from certain death at the hands of Harlem mobsters by a CIA agent named Harold Strutter. Now he was in some dark house he didn't recognize, surrounded by three women he had never met before. ( _What's going on here?_ )

One of the women, the redhead wearing medieval armour, said in astonished disbelief, "Ce qui s'est produit?" ( **What has happened?** ) The last thing she remembered was being burned alive at the stake during 1431.

Agent 007 frowned, he knew the language – he could speak French, German, Russian and even Japanese – but the words and sentence structure seemed rather archaic to him. "Parlez vous anglais? Do you speak English?"

"Je ne comprends pas," Joan of Arc said in confusion, still marvelling at how she was now alive and well. ( **I do not understand.** )

"I can speak English," Solitaire said, gaining Bond's attention. "Who are you?"

"Bond. James Bond," the Englishman said warily.

"I know who James Bond is. I also know what he is, and why we just met," Simone Latrelle said, her eyes narrowing. "You are not him."

"And you are...?"

"You may call me Solitaire," the brunette woman said.

She came across as superior, cold, and disdainful, an attitude reflected by the expression on her face. A face and form which Bond found very attractive and desirable – partly because of their inherent beauty, and partly also their hint of both cruelty and power. Then he pulled himself together and said, "I just met Miss Solitaire in Mr. Big's office, and you look nothing like her. Try again."

The psychic was outraged, but before she could say anything the trembling blonde in the red cape and hood finally spoke up. "E-excuse me? I, I don't understand. I was on my way to my grandmother's house in the woods, when, when I suddenly found myself here. However it happened – I, I'd like to go home now, please?"

Bond glanced at her, "Yes, well, I'd imagine we'd all like to go home, but I take it since none of us even knows how we got here, I'd wager that's not exactly on the cards right now."

"Sommes-nous dans l'enfer?" asked Joan of Arc. ( **Are we in Hell?** ) She had been growing rather impatient listening to the incomprehensible English conversation, and after looking around at the darkness and cobwebs, she suddenly suspected that this was the afterlife.

"Huh. Wish I could understand what that meant," the out-of-phase Oz said to himself. "And I guess magic really can't turn you into God..."

Joan of Arc whipped her head around wildly. "Mon dieu?" she asked in Oz's general direction. ( **My God?** )

Oz was a very intelligent person, and figured out that there had been enough chaos magic in the spell currently taking place so that Willow as Joan could talk to him in his present state, since it was an historical fact that she could "talk to God". "Willow, can you hear me?"

Joan babbled in medieval French again as she instinctively drew her sword. Little Red Riding Hood instantly freaked and ran away, and Solitaire began to chase after her. James hesitated, but after finding himself completely unarmed as well as wearing a rather cheap tuxedo, he decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valour and departed after the two women.

At that moment, Gachnar's voice was heard thundering throughout the frat house. "Release me!"

* * *

**The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California**

**A short while later**

Rupert Giles was feeling a bit out of sorts right at the moment. Not many children had come to his door trick o' treating tonight, and despite his words earlier to Buffy, he almost found himself wishing for a bit of excitement to spice up the evening.

A loud knocking on the door suddenly erupted and the ex-Watcher got up, swallowing his candy. "Just a minute, I'm coming!"

"Hurry! Please!" a female voice said with a distinct note of desperation in it.

Giles opened the door. "Happy Hall-"

Anya darted past him and slammed the door shut. "I'm in trouble, I need your help. I mean, you've got to do something!"

"Miss Jenkins? Anya?" Giles asked in surprise. "What, what are you doing here?"

"I'm running from a demon out to kill me, of course!" Anya told him. "He came to my place screaming his head off about all the agony he was in, how he was going to make me suffer for it, blah-blah-blippity-blah. So I came here to you, since Xander and his friends are probably all dead by now."

"What? Why?" Giles said angrily.

"Because I sicced that demon onto them, of course. Why else?" Anya asked impatiently.

"You, you..." Giles spluttered in sheer disbelief. "You come in here and tell me something like that, a-and you honestly expect me to HELP you?"

"Well, yeah. Because that's what you people do, isn't it?" the ex-demon asked with a dose of pure troll logic.

Giles didn't have time to reply as Kelkor kicked down his front door and came charging in to kill Anya. Rupert was in two minds about whether or not to just let the bloody thing have at it, but if there was any chance Buffy and the others were still alive, he needed Anya in one piece.

At least for now, his Ripper aspect noted.

Giles grabbed a sword from his weapons stash, and just as a careless and negligent Kelkor was about to eviscerate his target, he suddenly collapsed with the bladed weapon sticking out of his back, dead as a doornail. There was no time to congratulate himself however, as Giles quickly interrogated Anya to learn everything. Then he gathered some supplies to set off on his rescue mission.

* * *

**Alpha Delta Fraternity House, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**Some minutes earlier**

Bond and Solitaire were walking along together, having lost all trace of Little Red Riding Hood. That little girl currently was, in fact, screaming her lungs out at the sight of the Big Bad Wolf and running away from it, just as Joan of Arc was shrieking at being dragged to that market square where she'd been burned alive, but neither character from the spy thriller knew anything about any of that.

"You've made a mistake trying to fool me like this. And whatever you hope to gain by pretending to be someone you're not, you'll not succeed in obtaining it," Solitaire said icily to her companion.

"I could say the exact same thing about you, m'dear," Bond said in a distinct British accent. "For the sake of argument – if you are Solitaire, let's see you prove it. Tarot reading, anyone?"

"I, too, have a question if I may. If by some miracle you were who you say you are, do you honestly wish to find yourself with the Fool card again?" the seer replied nastily.

Bond arched an eyebrow. "If anything, I'll be expecting to see the Lovers card again." He saw her tense up. "What?"

Solitaire paid him no attention when she suddenly found herself with a very familiar deck of cards in her pocket. Withdrawing them, she laid out a standard reading pattern, using her powers to try to divine the future.

A full Tarot pack is made up of 78 cards: the minor arcana that have 56 suit cards, and the major arcana that have 22 pictorial symbol cards. The minor arcana, somewhat like a pack of modern playing cards, consist of suits of wands (clubs), cups (hearts), swords (spades), and pentacles (diamonds). Each suit contains 14 cards: four court cards (King, Queen, Knight, and Page) plus cards numbered from ace to ten.

The major arcana, though, consist of a Fool (also called a Madman) card and pictorial cards numbered from 1 to 21. The standard series of cards is as follows: (1) the Juggler; (2) the High Priestess; (3) the Empress; (4) the Emperor; (5) the Pope; (6) the Lovers; (7) the Chariot; (8) Strength; (9) the Hermit; (10) the Wheel of Fortune; (11) Justice; (12) the Hanging Man; (13) Death; (14) Temperance; (15) the Devil; (16) the Tower; (17) the Star; (18) the Moon; (19) the Sun; (20) the Day of Judgement; (21) the World.

Solitaire ended up turning over four cards that she understood were relevant to her own personal future. She paled as she saw which cards they were.

The Day of Judgement.

The Queen of Swords.

The Knight of Cups.

And the Lovers.

"No, no, no..." Solitaire whispered in horror.

"What's wrong?" Bond asked curiously.

"I am to be servant to the prince no longer in this world," she stammered. "According to the cards, the end time approaches. But before the final battle, you and I...we are to join together in earthly love, which means that I will lose my powers. This is my fate, I-I cannot see any way to avoid it. When the prince finds out, he will kill me!"

Solitaire looked up, having expected some sort of comment, yet Bond had disappeared.

"Release me!!" Gachnar's voice boomed out, startling the seer.

Elsewhere in the frat house, James Bond was confronting his own personal fear in the form of his archenemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. "So, 007. We meet again. And in the strangest places too," the grinning bald-headed man said, stroking a white cat. "I'd offer you a martini, but then the service around here seems to leave a lot to be desired."

"You're dead. I killed you," James snarled, coming forward and cursing the fact his gun was missing.

"You disappoint me, Mr. Bond. You of all men should know never to count an enemy as defeated until you see his dead body torn into little pieces. And sometimes, not even then." Blofeld sent Her Majesty's top agent a typical supervillain smirk. "Not that your dearly departed wife counts, of course."

At that moment Bond was about to leap forward to strangle his adversary to death when yet again the fear demon's voice was heard to rumble, "Release me!!"

It was also at that moment, in Giles' apartment, Kelkor died – and his spell was finally broken.

Xander blinked, back to himself again as Blofeld vanished right in front of him. Not far away, Oz phased in and instantly grabbed his girlfriend into a comforting hug, as Willow stopped screaming in French and the stake and burning torches all around them disappeared. Buffy stopped running for her life, yanked a crossbow out of her basket and looked around, but the Big Bad Wolf was gone.

And Cordelia just started cursing non-stop as soon as she understood what had happened. "I HATE MY LIFE!!" Miss Chase hollered angrily, startling anyone close enough to hear her.

TBC...


	3. Pleasure Principle

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed. Please keep 'em coming, I can't stress this enough; reviews are like the bread and wine of just about every writer. Anyway, on with the story...

* * *

**Part Three: Pleasure Principle**

**UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California**

**November 3rd, 1999**

**10:05 am**

Cordelia was listening to Professor Maggie Walsh today as part of auditing UC Sunnydale's classes for the next semester. The dark-haired beauty queen had plans for her future, and even though being an international superstar was no longer on the agenda that didn't mean she wasn't going to make something out of her life either.

Miss Chase shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She still hadn't fully returned to her old self after her recent Halloween experience. Becoming Solitaire had affected Cordy a great deal, even if the psychic power Simone Latrelle had possessed was completely gone. Apart from Oz, who was still pretty much the same person he'd always been, the mischief demon's magicks had also mentally and physically affected the rest of the gang.

Buffy was more than a little jumpy around her werewolf friend, and was wearing a distinct lack of red clothing these days. Willow had retained the ability to speak French, at least the particular dialect Joan of Arc had used anyway. She'd also been able to swing a mean sword all around the room in Giles' apartment after he'd come to the rescue that night, and Gachnar had been squished by Buffy.

Xander was a special case, as he no longer had most of the memories. The reason for this was that James Bond was an archetypal being, a conglomerate of all the books, movies and even the 1950s radio show written about him. The spell had transferred the archetype into Xander's mind, which was something that no human brain could safely handle long-term. Mostly because trying to reconcile all those conflicting elements would have been enough to give Xander a brain tumor or something. So Giles had performed some magic to bury the personal memories, while leaving the majority of James Bond's background knowledge accessible.

Given their living arrangements Cordelia was just grateful that her ex-boyfriend hadn't retained some of Bond's nastier traits, like the womanising, drinking and cigarette smoking. ( _That's all I need, a roommate with a couple of filthy habits and a different bimbo in his bed every night._ )

Cordy dragged herself out of her thoughts as the professor began lecturing her freshman psych class. Maggie said, "There are certain things we all want. Things like comfort, sex, shelter, food. We always want them and we want them all the time, thanks to that part of the mind called the id. Now the id doesn't learn, people; it doesn't grow up. It has the ego telling it what it can't have, and it has the superego telling it what it should want. But the id works solely out of the pleasure principle. It simply WANTS."

The woman then stated authoritatively, "Whatever social skills we've learned and however much we've evolved, the pleasure principle is still at work in all of us. So, how does this conflict of the id with both the ego and superego manifest itself in the psyche? What do we do when we can't have what we want?"

( _If you're the Slayer, you beat up vampires or the biggest male slut on campus,_ ) Cordelia thought to herself cynically as she watched Buffy stare at Parker Abrams, who was kissing some floozy or another. ( _I knew nothing good would ever come out of Buffy and him getting together, but since when does any of the loser squad ever listen to MY advice? Talk about inevitable social disaster. Just like Halloween. Honestly, I'd have been better off just staying at home with Xander that night._ )

This thought subsequently took Cordelia down a different mental roadway about how domestic things had gotten at the home she and Xander shared. After he'd apologized outside the Bronze for the fluke, she'd somehow finally managed get past the feelings of agonized betrayal and they had both moved on. So much so in fact Cordelia had started wondering if Xander might bring up the forbidden subject of whether their sleeping arrangements would ever change.

( _After all, he's a guy and I can tell that he still fantasizes about me, God knows I don't need Solitaire's abilities to have figured THAT out. And that Tarot reading said the Queen and the Knight would eventually get together...as in, me and him? It's just...ugh, if only I could get Mom's voice out of my head saying "once a cheater, always a cheater". I mean, Xander wouldn't ever do that to me again. Would he?_ )

The former cheerleader didn't have an answer for that question. Not yet, anyway.

* * *

**UC Sunnydale pub, Sunnydale, California **

**Later that night**

Cordelia, Willow and Buffy entered the bar, which was pretty busy tonight judging by the lack of room to move around in. "My God, but this place is a complete dive. Willow, how did I ever let you talk me into coming here again?" Miss Chase asked.

Joan of Arc hadn't been the leader of the French army for nothing and ever since Halloween, Miss Rosenberg had gotten the sense that Xander wasn't telling her everything about living with his ex-girlfriend. So the redhead was hoping for the chance to talk to said roommate about a few things in private this evening. "Well, it's like a girls night out, y'know, the three of us can do that whole bonding thing-"

"Oh, please. You just wanted someone to help you keep an eye on Buffy so she doesn't do something stupid again," Miss Chase said scornfully, referring to how the Slayer had recently slept with Parker Abrams and then been treated like crap afterwards.

Buffy looked at her companions as they got a table near the bar. She was clearly very upset and depressed tonight, which explained why she hadn't cared whether Cordelia was present or not. "You know maybe, maybe he's just having trouble dealing. I mean, don't guys sometimes put the girl they really, really like inside these deep little brain fantasy bubbles where everything's perfect? They do that, right?"

Cordy looked at Willow. "The hair dye must have finally leached into her brain, what do you think?"

Willow sighed, "Parker."

Buffy nodded, "Maybe I'm in his bubble and then pretty soon he's going to realize that he wants more than just Bubble Buffy and he'll pop me out and we'll go to dinner and it could happen, right?"

"What fantasy land did your mind just come out of?" Cordelia asked impatiently. "God, will you just forget about that jerk? The only thing Parker Abrams wants is for his penis to be satisfied every night before he goes to sleep. I'm telling you, his type of slime lives under every rock imaginable."

"She's right," Willow agreed. "Buff, you need to forget all about the stinky Parker man and move on."

"Okay," the Chosen One said doubtfully. "How?"

Just then four college boys named Colm, Roy, Hunt and Kip decided to join the female trio. "Hello, ladies," Roy said charmingly. "How are you this fine evening?"

"Forget it," Cordelia said brusquely, shooting him down at once. "I'm not interested. And that's before I even knew you existed."

"Would you three like anything from the bar? It's on us," Kip said, not letting Cordelia's attitude dissuade him.

"You know what, I'd like a beer. If I can't run away from my problems, at least I can try drowning them," Buffy suddenly announced.

That was all the encouragement the four Romeos needed, as Colm went to the bar and the other three grabbed some chairs to join the Scooby women. "So what were you three discussing before we rudely interrupted you? The geopolitical ramifications of bioengineering, maybe?" Hunt asked.

"Oh, I have some ideas about-" Willow started to say eagerly, her inner geek in full-on mode.

"That has got to be the worst pickup line I've ever heard," Cordelia shook her head. "And with my doofus of an ex-boyfriend, that's really saying something."

Hunt's smile faltered for a moment before he firmed it up. The small talk continued for a while before the man said, "Ah, here comes the beer!"

"Hey, everyone. I'd like for all of you to meet-" Colm arrived with two pitchers of Black Frost and a female companion.

"ANYA?" Buffy, Cordelia, and Willow all said at the same time. The woman had shown up to assist Giles with the big rescue mission at the frat house that night. Which was the only reason why the former Watcher hadn't offered her as a free meal to Harmony or something immediately afterwards, once he'd determined the trapped teens were safe.

"Oh, you guys know each other? Hey, this is perfect," Roy spoke up, a calculating look in his eyes. ( _Perfect, right. Four guys and four girls, no need to worry about anyone feeling like a fifth wheel during the pussy hunt. _)

"What are you doing here?" Anya scowled at Cordelia, even as Colm dragged another seat to the table for her. "I thought that yacht club place which you used to frequent was your preferred venue of choice rather than a college bar."

"True, but it's a free country isn't it? And if we're gonna be in share mode, what are YOU doing here?" Cordy asked.

"I'm thinking of enrolling into UC Sunnydale, so I thought it would be a good idea to mingle and meet the people beforehand," Anya replied haughtily, ignorant of how Cordelia had had the exact same idea. "So why aren't you getting ready to, and how did you put this, screw your roommate's brains out when he comes back after work?"

Buffy and Willow looked astonished and then rather ill even as Cordelia scowled. The former demon had unknowingly scored a direct hit, as Miss Chase had only said that back then to permanently kick Anya out of her home. So Cordy just grabbed a glass of beer on the table and took a big gulp out of it.

"Hey, that was supposed to be mine!" Buffy objected.

"No problem," Kip said, as he began to pour a beer for everyone from his pitcher. "Drinks are on us for tonight."

"Uh, no thanks. I'll pass," Willow quickly said.

"So will I. If you want me to give you orgasms later this evening, you'll have to convince me to do it without getting me drunk," Anya said bluntly to Colm.

There was an embarrassed pause as Cordelia quickly drained her first beer of the night.

* * *

**Room 214, Stevenson Hall, UC Sunnydale**

**The next day**

"Ohhhh...my head," Cordelia groaned as she slowly rose off of Willow's bed. "Where am I?"

"My dorm," Buffy croaked, getting up as well. "Ugh. I see I'm not the only one suffering the afterness of a bad night of badness."

"Right. Where's Willow?" Cordelia tried to focus using one of Solitaire's meditation techniques.

"Probably spent the night with Oz. I think she left not long after the drinking competition began." The Slayer clutched her head. "Ow. Bright colours. Loud noise. Uh, what happened to Anya?"

"Who cares?" Cordelia snorted. Then she looked horrified. "Oh my God! If she went to find Xander...and I left him all alone last night..."

"Your insecurities are showing," Buffy remarked as she went to wipe her face with a towel and drink a glass of water. "By the way, 'getting reading to screw Xander's brains out'?"

"It's not what you think, I just had to say something to get rid of her. And even if it was what you think, that would be so totally none of your business," Cordelia grated out.

( _Why am I even talking to you_? ) Buffy thought sourly. But before she could say anything, a loud banging on the door was heard. Both female teens flinched in immediate pain.

"Will? Buff? Are you guys in there?" Xander's voice could be heard from the outside, and he sounded worried. "It's me, Xander. Open up, lemme in!"

Miss Summers did so. "What's wrong?" she asked gingerly.

"It's Cordy, she never came home last night-" Harris started to say as he crossed the threshold, before he saw his roommate clutching her head, "-because she spent the night here," Xander finished up, his worry starting to turn into annoyance.

"Hey, Xander. Uh, can you take me home? I can't exactly focus in my current condition," Cordelia said, willing the hangover to go away.

"You went out drinking last night?" he asked slowly, easily recognizing all the signs. "Well, a phone call would have been nice. Since I was wondering if you'd ended up vampire kibble."

"Yeah, sorry." Cordelia suddenly looked up. "Hey, did that skank Anya come around to the apartment last night after she left the bar?"

"Anya?" Xander looked briefly confused, before the simmering resentment came back. "No. Haven't seen her. Ready to go?"

Cordelia nodded, and delicately headed for the door.

* * *

**UC Sunnydale pub, Sunnydale, California **

**Later that night**

Odd as it may have seemed, Buffy and Cordelia were back at the bar this evening. Both girls wanted to forget about their troubles for a while, especially those concerning the male gender, and had had a few more glasses of Black Frost on behalf of the four college boys from last night.

Anya had briefly been there and loudly told Colm in front of everyone present that the sex had been completely unsatisfying, and he was not to call her ever again. To Cordy and Buffy, human tact was obviously still a major work in progress for that girl.

"Xander stupid," Cordelia slurred, pushing away her mug. They had had a fight today about nothing of cosmic importance. "Stupid boy."

"Parker too," Buffy replied. She got up and started banging the jukebox. "Thing. Like it."

"Hey, hey, hey!" the new assistant bartender called out. "That's enough of that, miss, or you'll be paying for repairs."

"Want more beer," Cordelia called out.

"Want more singing," Buffy added.

The assistant bartender suddenly looked shocked as he spied Roy, Colm, Hunt and Kip come slouching out of the men's bathroom. They had all regressed into Neanderthals, thanks to the beer being spiked with a mystical additive to teach these particular customers a lesson.

The employee quickly threw away his apron, declared "I quit!" to the bar owner named Jack and sprinted out the door, narrowly missing barging into Xander he came in looking for his female friends.

"Cordy? Buffy?" Harris said as he spied the female pair. He also spied the alcohol on the table. "Aw, come on, don't tell me that you two decided to go out drinking again..."

The Chase girl, who was looking rather dishevelled, came over and started sniffing him. "Boy smell nice," Cordelia purred, forgetting about the whole 'stupid' thing. "Boy mine."

"What?" Xander asked in confusion, as his roommate started staring at him like he was a hunk of prime beef and she was a hungry cat. Without any further warning Miss Chase tackled Harris down to the ground and began kissing him passionately.

It wasn't pretty, though. It was extremely rough and brutal as Xander started rolling around on the floor, struggling to get Cordelia off of him without hurting her. Finally, he managed to push Miss Chase away despite her newly manifested strength, and breathing heavily Xander jumped up, automatically crouching into a combat stance and reaching for a Walther PPK that wasn't there. "Cordy, what the hell is up with you?"

"Want people. Where people go?" Cave-Buffy suddenly got Xander's attention, his eyes widening at the sight of his friend having de-evolved in the space of a few seconds.

"Buffy?" Xander asked. Then he spotted the male Neanderthals, who had just been standing around and enjoying the show. "What the heck-?"

"Want beer!" Cave-Cordy suddenly yelled, startling Xander all over again. She, too, now looked like a character from One Million Years BC, but sadly without the fuzzy bikini. The brunette certainly sounded thirsty; Xander's rejection had made her lose interest in him and increased the desire for more alcohol.

Harris slowly backed away as the four cavemen left the establishment. He soon encountered Jack. "What the heck's going on here? What happened to Buffy and Cordy?"

"They got what was coming to them, just like those other guys," the bar owner said scornfully, as he began to pick up some of the pitchers on the tables.

Xander grabbed the man by the throat and squeezed hard, just like Bond would have done. "What did you do?" he hissed, relaxing his grip slightly, just enough to allow the bar owner to answer. "Talk, or I'll have your guts for garters!"

Jack wasn't put off by either the younger man's threats or his unconscious British slang. "You kids have been coming into my bar and giving me abuse for the past twenty years, ya know that? Coming in here with your snotty attitude, drinking your fruity little micro-brews and spouting out some stupid philosophy like it means a damn thing. Well, not anymore!"

"It was the beer, wasn't it? You put something in the beer, that's how you made my girls start questing for fire?"

"Yeah. Relax, hero. It'll wear off in a day or so," Jack grumbled. "Besides, it's not like they had all that much of the stuff. Those other four assholes though, they had so much to drink they'll hopefully get themselves killed while under the influence."

Xander never hesitated. He knocked the bar owner out cold with a single punch. When he turned to find Buffy and Cordelia he saw that they were now both absent.

"Great," the young man muttered. "Just perfect. Cave-Slayer and Cave-Cheerleader on the loose out there somewhere. Better rustle up a search party..."

* * *

**Rocket Café, UC Sunnydale, California**

**November 5th, 1999**

**12:03 am**

"Buffy! Cordelia!" Willow screamed, even as the two mystically inebriated women started beating on Parker. "Stop! You gotta-" Suddenly, she noticed the building was on fire, thanks to the four Neanderthal guys saying "Fire good. Fire pretty," and deciding that charcoal really was the in-look this season.

"Oh no," Willow whispered, looking around. Her spell-induced memories of what had happened to Joan of Arc instantly terrified the Jewish girl, almost incapacitating her ability to function. ( _No, no, I gotta get outta here!_ ) she gibbered in mind-numbing fear, those death screams from being burned alive were still way too fresh inside Willow's head.

At just about the same time, the Neanderthals seemed to realize all the smoke and flames really weren't a good thing and they started to look for a way out as well. But that quartet, along with Buffy and Cordelia, no longer had the mental capacity to figure out how to get away safely. They all just grunted and howled in fear a lot.

At that moment Giles, Oz and Xander burst in, Rupert grabbing a fire extinguisher and trying to fight the flames. "Willow!" Giles called over to the terrified teen.

"Giles, thank God you're here!" the redhead exclaimed. "Xander-!" she then shrieked, as a section of the ceiling began to collapse down on top of Cave-Cordelia. Luckily, the man managed to drag his ex-girlfriend out of the way just in time.

"Come on!" Harris yelled, as Giles fought in vain to contain the blaze. "Will, grab that guy on the floor!"

Overcoming her fear, the computer nerd reluctantly yanked Parker up. The cavemen seemed to get the idea of a tactical withdrawal and started smashing furniture aside in their rush to get to the exit, as Giles finally called it quits with the fire extinguisher and helped Willow with Parker. Oz and Xander grabbed Cave-Buffy and Cave-Cordelia respectively and vacated the premises as well, just in time.

The first fire engines started to arrive as the four Neanderthals got knocked out and locked up in a van, Willow finally regained her equilibrium, Xander carefully checked to make sure Cave-Cordelia was okay and Cave-Buffy hit Parker over the head one more time, just for good measure.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**November 6th, 1999**

**8:20 am**

"So, was there a lesson in all this? What did we learn about beer?" Xander asked in a sing-song tone of voice.

"You're enjoying this way too much," Cordelia growled, glancing at him. The tainted alcohol's effects had worn off by now, and she was back to her usual stunning and perfectly coiffed self. ( _I just wish I could repress the worst parts of it. Oh, and I'm never touching beer again in my entire life!_ )

"Senior salesgirl not able to handle the beer," Xander refused to stop needling her, and referring to the job Cordelia had gotten at the April Fools Dress Shoppe. Because she had worked there before and the storeowner had been glad to find someone with prior experience, Cordy was quickly hired. It also didn't hurt that Harmony had slaughtered Mrs. Finkel and the rest of the sales staff recently during that blonde's shopping binge.

"And I suppose you can?" Cordelia retorted.

Xander suddenly lost the smile. "I don't know, but I come from a long line of drunks, sweetheart. That's why I don't touch the stuff and I plan to keep it that way. I do not intend to end up like my dad or my Uncle Rory one day, that's for damn sure."

Cordelia turned to look at him. "We need to talk."

"Okay. Uh, is this about what happened in the bar when you went all Raquel Welch on me?" Harris asked. "Because if it is, you don't have to say anything about that. I mean, we both know you were totally under the influence then. Seriously, Cor, as far as I'm concerned, we can live out the rest of our lives without ever mentioning any of that again."

Cordy looked uncomfortable. "That's not what I wanted to talk about...well, not exactly, anyway."

"Oh? Then what is it?"

"You saved my life yesterday in that fire-"

"Just like you saved me when Harmony was about to snack on my neck, so I think we can call it even," Xander interrupted.

"Yeah, but you did the exact same thing when I was about to become the Bride of Frankenstein. So come here." Xander did so. "This is for cheating on me with Willow last year." She slapped him in the face hard enough to make his teeth rattle.

While Harris was still disoriented from the shock and pain, Miss Chase said, "And this is for being there for me when I needed you," as she grabbed him by the lapels and passionately kissed Xander like he'd never been kissed before.

At a conscious level, the young man had no idea what to do. But at an instinctive one, his body certainly knew how to respond. Suddenly the kiss ended as Cordelia pushed him away. "Wha-?" Xander managed to splutter out.

"Let's get something straight right now. We're not going to pretend the past never happened, or get back together just like that," Cordelia told him firmly. "There is no 'us', at least not yet. But I'll tell you what though, if you keep up the good behaviour maybe one day I might change my mind. Showering me with lots of gifts wouldn't hurt either."

"Are you still-"

"No. No blaming anything on the beer, because it's not that. It's got nothing to do with Solitaire's memories either, because at long last, I'm completely me again. And I meant every word I just said," Cordy finished up, having decided to repress those spell-induced memories from now on.

Xander could not help but smile at hearing her words. ( _Well, I guess that's something I can live with. And maybe I was right, maybe forgiveness is possible..._ )

TBC...


	4. Its Hour Come Round At Last

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to everyone who's reviewed, it provides the much-needed incentive to keep going with the story. Please keep it up, and we hope that there will be many more to come.

* * *

**Part Four: Its Hour Come Round At Last**

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**December 9th, 1999**

**3:46 pm**

"You wanna run that by me again?" Cordelia asked Buffy with a stunned expression on her face, as Xander also stared gob-smacked at the blonde Slayer.

"I need you guys to take Spike in for a while," Buffy repeated herself. "Willow and I can't have him in our dorm room, and Giles has his girlfriend coming over, so-"

"Hell, no!" Harris interrupted firmly. "No way, Buff!"

"What he said," Miss Chase agreed fervently. "That creep is not staying here, even if he is neutered these days!"

It was common knowledge within the Scooby ranks that the Initiative had indeed captured and neutralized the British vampire with a chip implanted in his brain before he'd escaped their holding facility. Maggie Walsh hadn't been pleased about Spike's unauthorized departure of course but, from the reports of her agents in the field, she was happy to know her behaviour modification circuitry worked. She now intended to implant such a thing into her personal project "Adam" just before he – or rather it – went on-line.

In any case, Buffy hadn't expected both Xander and Cordy to be so vehemently against her request. She asked, "Why not? I mean, you two have got a spare bedroom these days, right?" Miss Summers was neither blind nor an idiot with regard to what had been developing lately between her male friend and his ex, however much she disapproved of the pairing.

"No. I'm still using it," Xander said, with a quick glance to Cordelia. As yet they hadn't initiated sexual relations together, even though they'd done practically everything else, and he knew Cordy did not want him to talk about that particular subject to the Slayer. She had been upset more than plenty when she heard he'd had a deep and meaningful with Oz, before the werewolf had broken up with Willow and split town last month. "So there's no room for Spike to live in our apartment. Sorry, Buffy, but that's the bottom line here."

"So what am I going to do with him?"

"I don't know," Cordelia replied. "But as long as he doesn't stay here, you can do whatever you want with him. Stake him, tell him to go mooch off Harmony, whatever. Heck, you can even get engaged to Spike again for all I care!"

Buffy looked both frustrated and annoyed, reminded of Willow's 'my-will-be-done' spell a while ago. "Could we please possibly repress about that?"

"I wish. But after Willow said to me, and I quote, 'Well, if you and Xander are so close nowadays, why don't you two just pick up where you left off in high school?' That's really kinda hard to do," Cordy replied, recalling all the fights with her roommate that day.

"Not to mention how Giles went blind thanks to Will's spell," Xander added. "And my God, but how I envied him after I saw you and Captain Peroxide together that way."

"Yeah, okay, getting back on topic. Can either of you at least give me some sort of suggestion on what to do with Spike?" Buffy asked, really wanting an end to this particular trip down Memory Lane.

"Why not send him to Deadboy in LA?" Xander suggested. "With any luck, one or maybe even both of them will kill the other. Either way we'll be bet-" He saw Buffy's venomous glare and stopped. "Well, hey, a man can dream can't he?"

* * *

**The Bronze, Sunnydale, California**

**January 22nd, 2000**

**8:01 pm**

Willow Rosenberg looked around at all the people enjoying themselves here on a Saturday night, and exhaled softly.

Just like with Buffy and her Little Red Riding Hood persona, all the stuff from becoming Joan of Arc had more-or-less vanished from Willow's mind by now, rejected like the ghost stuff from years ago. Such things just didn't fit in with who she was and who she wanted to be.

It had been nearly three months since Halloween and a lot of things had happened in the intervening time. Willow's boyfriend had been caught cheating on her, and later killed the other woman in wolf form. Oz had then left his girlfriend to find a cure for his lycanthropy. In her despondency, Willow had cast that disastrous 'my-will-be-done' spell and later baked quite a lot of cookies to try to make up for what she'd done.

The Gentlemen had arrived, killing and stealing hearts, and inadvertently causing Buffy and Riley's secrets to be given away to each other. Xander and Cordelia had gotten closer then too, as they'd fought for their lives against the Footmen and narrowly avoided getting killed.

So many crazy events had occurred, topped off most recently by Buffy's annual birthday disaster.

Miss Rosenberg shook her head. She had honestly never expected their mentor and former librarian to get turned into a Fyarl demon after getting drunk with his old 'friend', Ethan Rayne. ( _Giles must have been even lonelier than I thought after Olivia person left him,_ ) Willow thought to herself. ( _He really does need to find a job or another girlfriend._ )

Willow suddenly saw Riley Finn, who she now knew was part of the secret military organization called the Initiative. Not long after an earthquake had almost heralded the end of the world thanks to three Vahrall demons, the Secret Agent Man had been fully exposed.

Finn had also found out how Buffy was Slayer, comma The, much to his initial disbelief, but that was hardly surprising. As far as Maggie Walsh and the Initiative agents had been concerned, the Slayer was merely a myth, something dismissed as just a legend regarding their captives' personal bogeyman. It had been quite a blow to their egos find out how very wrong they'd been.

As Willow watched, Riley slid into a booth with Buffy and those two started kissing. The relationship between the Slayer and the Alpha team leader of the Initiative had nowadays moved far beyond camaraderie and friendship ever since Buffy had officially been brought into the government's demon-hunting unit.

( _Good for them, I guess. Wow, I never thought Buffy would ever move on from Parker so fast. And from Angel as well,_ ) Willow thought to herself. ( _But as long as they're happy, that's the important thing._ )

Willow's gaze slid over to the dance floor, listening to the slow romantic ballad being played. ( _Now, if only I could make myself believe that about Cordy and Xander_... )

As she watched the two dance very closely together, the apprentice witch ruminated, ( _It's amazing, really. Still, I guess living together for the last five months has finally taught 'em what the word 'compromise' means. Huh, I guess despite the fluke thing some high school romances really can turn out okay._ )

Willow was suddenly distracted from her thoughts by the appearance of Tara Maclay, a fellow UC Sunnydale student and Wiccan practitioner. "Tara, hey! I haven't seen you here before."

The blonde lesbian didn't want to say she had come to the club only because her secret crush had mentioned that she was going to be here tonight. "I, I thought I'd come check it out after w-what you said today," Tara stammered.

Willow nodded as the song ended, and Xander and Cordelia headed back towards their table. "Cool. Come on, I'll introduce you to all my friends."

"Um, in a minute. I just wanted to ask, c-could I borrow your notes from Professor Thornton's lecture on the French Revolution today?" The pathologically shy Tara tried to delay the inevitable. "He talked so fast, I-I missed parts of it. Oh, and w-what did you think of the content?"

The delaying tactic worked, as Willow got caught up in the moment and started babbling away to her companion. Not far away, Cordelia and Xander reached the table where Buffy and Riley were making out and Miss Chase just rolled her eyes at the entire display.

"Hose warning," Xander drawled lazily. "First hose warning now being issued. After two such warnings, freezing cold water will hit any patrons engaged in passionate activities."

Riley and Buffy stopped what they were doing and the Iowan looked at his girlfriend speculatively. "It might just be worth it. She'd look incredible if that outfit got all wet."

"Riley! Stop that," Buffy blushed and lightly smacked him.

"The wet T-shirt concept is so over nowadays," Cordelia remarked as she and Xander sat down. She looked to her roommate and said, "'Hose warning'? Where do you come up with these things?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Xander smirked at her.

"What I'd like to know is whether you've reconsidered my offer to join up with the Initiative," Riley said eagerly, as Buffy snuggled against him. "Honestly, Xander, your unarmed combat and sharpshooter skills are incredible! For a civilian, I mean."

Harris hesitated, not wanting to be rude but not wanting this subject to continue any longer either. He had talked to Maggie Walsh personally, and she gave Xander the complete wiggins. The concept of taking orders from her was subconscious anathema to him. Walsh was no M, that was certain, and her tech crew didn't have anyone like Q in it either. Two big turn-offs as far as his psyche was concerned.

"Look, Riley, no offense, but I really don't think so, y'know? 'Cause the funny thing about magic-induced abilities is they fade. That stuff I got from Soldier Guy two years ago, it's practically all gone now. And being James Bond for a while last year? Just not something I wanna rely on. I've learned the hard way how using someone else's instincts can be pretty risky in a combat situation."

Riley shook his head. He couldn't help it, because the soldier still found the whole magic thing practically impossible to swallow. He wasn't alone in that mindset either. Most of the Initiative personnel, especially Forrest Gates, point-blank refused to believe in it and considered all the demons they caught or killed to be merely exotic animals of some kind. Some might be smarter than others, granted, but they were still just that: animals.

It was a very foolish and dangerous attitude, but the concept of not being at the top of the food chain was intolerable to that sort of people and so they indulged in their own form of denial. This attitude was helped in part by the Hellmouth's pervasive and malignant supernatural energy, as well as their own stupidity.

Finn glanced at all three of his companions and finally said, "That possession thing. What was it like going through something like that?"

Before anyone else could reply Cordelia said firmly, "Weird and freaky. Just like finding out Giles was actually a demon in disguise a few days ago. And major eww there, by the way."

"Yeah, uh, what's the situation with that? If you recall, I didn't get back into town until all the excitement was over," Xander said, having been away in Carlton at the time.

Buffy briefly explained how Riley had arrested Rayne in his hotel room, and the MPs had taken Ethan to a secret detention facility in the Nevada desert for rehabilitation. "And good riddance, too. Hopefully, we'll never see him again." She noticed Xander's expression. "What?"

Harris shook his head. "Riley, are you telling me that you basically just kidnapped that guy? Did you inform the British embassy in Washington, at least?"

"No, we didn't. Why would we?" Riley asked in confusion.

Harris looked even more concerned now. "Foreign nationals who get arrested or detained, they have the right for their embassy or consulate to be notified of said activity. If the State Department ever learns what you did the other night...well, you could end up in a whole lot of trouble!"

"Oh come on, Xander, that's ridiculous-" Buffy started to say dismissively.

"Why, just 'cause you think it is?" Xander interrupted her. "Buffy, it's Riley's ass that's personally on the line here, so I think you of all people ought to be a bit more concerned about this."

The Initiative agent hesitated for a few moments, his sense of duty battling with the soldier's instinct of trusting his friends and allies. Trust won out and so he said, "Okay, look, you never heard this from me. And if any of you ever say anything to anyone about it you'll end up in major trouble, understand?"

"We're not amateurs, G.I. Joe. I mean Xander and I grew up alongside vampires while you were growing up on that farm back in Iowa," Cordy said dismissively.

"Hey!" Buffy yelped in defense of her boyfriend. "There's no need to be so insulting!"

Riley ignored the bickering females and focused on the other member of the Y chromosome club. "Look, the Initiative is a black ops outfit. It was set up under a sealed Presidential order, bringing together the best of the best from the Army and Marines, and its members were authorised to combat the hostiles and arrest any and all human demon sympathizers. I signed up to protect my country from its enemies, Xander, that's what our mission's all about – and why Rayne got shipped off to the detention facility that night."

"Well, okay, I'll admit all that sounds nice in theory. But where's the civilian oversight?" Xander wanted to know. "I mean, it may be off the books but there is some government committee or whatever that you guys answer to, isn't there?"

Riley gave up. "That's not my concern, my superior officer handles that part of it. Xander, look, I'll discuss it with Dr. Walsh when I get back to the base, okay? Find out why exactly she insisted the prisoner get shipped off to that place in Nevada, if that'll help ease your concerns."

"Oh, and while you're at it, ask her about that 314 thing that Giles said Ethan mentioned," Buffy told him.

"314? That's the classified area, special research projects. Only Dr. Walsh and Dr. Angleman are allowed in there," Riley now looked worried. "Rayne knew about that?"

"Looks like it. You think that's why she wanted to get rid of him? Because he learned something that's supposed to be kept secret?" Cordelia asked the group in general.

Finn almost started sweating with concern at the implications of that statement. However at that moment Willow and Tara finally came over to the booth and all the questions had to cease with the introduction of the new civilian into his life. Later, after Willow and Tara left to socialize with some college classmates, Buffy dragged Riley away to the dance floor leaving Xander and Cordelia alone at the table.

"There you are!" Anya said as she came over to the booth. "Xander, I've been looking all over for you."

"Why?" Cordelia demanded, claws automatically extending.

Miss Jenkins didn't even so much as glance at her. "I've got that information you wanted from one of my sources. So please give me your money now."

Knowledge was over half the battle in this business, and since Anya still had some connections in the demon world, when he could Xander paid her to keep him informed about what was happening in Sunnydale. "Ahn, I'm afraid you've kinda caught me at a bad time money-wise. I had to buy some tools and stuff, so I'm a little short on cash right now," Xander said apologetically.

An interested gleam seemed to come into the young woman's eyes. "If sufficient levels of the greenback is a problem for you, there are other forms of payment," Anya said in her typical forthright manner. "I'm willing to settle for payment in kind, if you are."

Xander knew what that look on Anya's face signified; he had seen it before, and more than once. ( _Ah, crap..._ )

"What do you mean?" Cordelia demanded of the former demon.

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Anya asked Cordelia in genuine puzzlement. "I'm referring to copulation, of course. I still dream about him all naked occasionally, so if Xander's penis brings about a state of bliss after we have sexual intercourse I'll waive my monetary fee and give him the desired information."

By this point, Cordelia was struggling to get loose from Xander's grasp in order to tear Anya's hair out. Tearing Anya's throat out wasn't out of the question either. She was mad at Xander as well, but wanted to take care of her perceived rival first. ( _YOU BITCH!!!_ )

Harris clamped a hand over Cordy's mouth and said to the other woman, "Sorry, Ahn, but I don't think so. I'll get in touch with you when I've got the money, okay? The usual amount?"

"Yes. No, wait, I want another five percent for my wasted time trying to find you tonight. After all, time is money," the wonderfully capitalistic Anya replied, completely ignoring Cordelia's muffled screams.

"Fine. See you then." After Miss Jenkins had left Xander released Cordelia, who promptly slapped him. "OW! What was that for?" Harris asked, rubbing his cheek.

"I never gave you permission to restrain me like that, you asswipe," she snarled. "And why did you stop me from trying to kill her?"

"Because for one thing, Anya hasn't done anything to deserve it...well, ever since she became human again anyway."

"She wanted to have SEX with you!!" Cordelia hissed, somehow managing not to shout. "And don't tell me that you're not attracted to her. I know you better than anybody by now!"

Harris just shook his head wearily. "I'm not him, Cordy. I may still have some of Bond's mannerisms, but I'm just a one-woman guy here. Besides, no matter how many women he may have slept with, there was only one girl that Bond ever wanted to marry. So I figure that's what I should be aiming for, not a bunch of meaningless affairs that never really made him happy."

Xander's speech uncomfortably reminded the brunette of her mother's new reputation as the town bicycle, and how that had led to all ties being cut between them. The anger draining away Miss Chase said, "Really?"

"Really."

Cordelia made a decision that had been a long time in the making. "Come on, we're going home."

"But it's still early-"

"Doesn't matter. I'm invoking one of my official girlfriend privileges," the female teen interrupted firmly, dragging Harris out of the booth by the arm.

Despite their private monogamous relationship, that was one issue they'd yet to discuss: taking things to the next level and making it official. "Whoa, whoa, hold up. Girlfriend?" Xander asked out of interest.

"Yeah, and you're my boyfriend. You remember what I said after that beer-fest debacle? Well, you've been a good Xander, best behaviour and all. Therefore, as of this moment, I'm officially taking you back. And now we're going home to bed. You do understand what THAT means, right?"

Xander's eyes went wide at hearing Cordy's words. ( _Oh. Wow! Um, uh...guess now that other bedroom will finally be available for Spike, if she's actually serious..._ )

Xander wasn't sure, though, if his newly reclaimed girlfriend was just overreacting to Anya's suggestion of sexual favors as part of their business deal. He knew just how competitive Miss Chase could get. This was going to have to be handled very delicately.

Or else the young man could just let Cordelia have her own way and finally get back everything he'd thought he'd lost forever, after fluking with Willow so long ago.

* * *

**The Initiative base, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**February 18th, 2000**

**7:42 pm**

The situation definitely looked grim.

Xander's concerns about Professor Margaret Walsh and the Initiative had been quite justified; the scientist's true colours had finally been revealed when it was learned that she had added addictive performance-enhancing drugs to the diets of her agents as 'vitamin supplements', without either their knowledge or consent. This demonstrated perfectly what Walsh really thought of the word known as 'ethics'.

After Buffy had pissed her off so much with questions about 314 and everything else, Maggie had decided to stage an 'accident' in order to get rid of Miss Summers for good. It had failed of course, because with her blinkered world-view the good doctor had no idea what the Slayer was really capable of in a desperate situation, locked up with hostile demons and a faulty Initiative blaster.

Maggie had also finally succeeded in creating the cyber-demonoid named "Adam", a vile mixture of man, demon and machine. His very existence was, quite frankly, an insult to the natural order of things everywhere. Nonetheless the hybrid creature had been designed to be the ultimate warrior and Walsh was nothing if not competent – at least with regard to that aspect of her plans. Unfortunately for her, though, Adam had awoken before Maggie had been able to place the anti-violence chip into his brain and killed his creator before escaping from 314. He had subsequently gone out to explore the world, and committed his first series of murders, human and demon alike.

Right now Xander, Buffy and Cordelia were deep inside the Initiative and interrogating Dr. Angleman, Walsh's second-in-command. The Slayer actually had her hand wrapped around the guy's throat demanding answers, when Buffy's boyfriend came into the room.

Shaking and addle-brained, Riley Finn had been suffering horrible withdrawal pains lately after going off Maggie's drugs cold turkey. "Buffy, what are you doing?" he demanded.

The Slayer ignored his question and interrogated Angleman. "Maggie wanted me dead, didn't she? That's why she tried to kill me last night."

The scientist felt it wiser not to lie under these circumstances. "Yes, true enough." He glanced at Riley, who appeared stunned and betrayed. "But please understand, the Initiative has no interest in eliminating the Slayer." He looked back at Buffy. "That was entirely her own vendetta."

Miss Summers snarled, "Why? Spell it out for me! I feel an attack of dumb blonde coming on."

Angleman shrugged. "I don't know."

Buffy squeezed his throat a little tighter. "I won't ask again!"

Angleman finally caved, "It was the project."

"Project? You mean 314," Xander finally spoke up. "You wanna give us some more details on that?"

"It..." Angleman looked pleadingly at Buffy, who finally let him go. Then the lab-coat looked at Riley. "The prototype that she was working on. It killed her before it escaped."

Riley stepped closer, looking more deranged than ever. "No, no, that can't be right! You're making her sound like some kind of psychopath. She wasn't like that! Dr. Walsh was a brilliant woman!"

"Sure, just like Dr. Frankenstein. His monster went around killing people as well, remember?" Cordelia said acidly.

Buffy briefly stared at her, really wishing that the former cheerleader wasn't here right now. Unfortunately nobody, not even Xander, had been able to prevent her from coming along after the gang had established a plan to get some answers and Cordy's boyfriend had been chosen to be part of the raiding crew. "Walsh wasn't-"

"All she was doing was trying to help people, and this is the way you guys want her to remembered!?" Riley screamed, now on the verge of losing it completely.

"Get a grip, soldier!" Xander's harsh voice thundered in his ear, startling the commando with the 'commanding officer' tone it carried. "Calm down or so help me God, I'll drug you myself if that's what it takes to make you lucid again. Look, this isn't about assigning blame anymore. Everything that we need to know is right here, we just need to find out what it was exactly that Walsh was working on in 314-"

"That would be me."

Everyone turned around to see the cyber-demonoid walking along on a platform above them. Ignoring their stares, Adam said, "I've been thinking about the world, ever since I became self-aware. I wanted to see it, learn about it. Once I was out there, I saw the insides of many different creatures...and it was fascinating, but that didn't tell me about the world. It just made me feel something that I'd never felt before. So now, I want to learn more about me. Why I feel. What I am."

Adam stepped off the platform and jumped down to the same level as the humans. "That's why I came home."

"Well, I don't think anyone here's going to throw you a welcome home party," Cordelia told the cyber-demonoid bluntly, her usual lack of tact coming to the fore.

Adam ignored her and inserted a thick disk from a pouch on his right waist into the disk drive on his chest. The letters "ADAM" could be seen on it, and Harris for one got a really bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

Adam said calmly, "According to this, what I am is a kinematically redundant, biomechanical demonoid designed by Dr. Maggie Walsh. She called me Adam and I called her Mother."

"Prime directive, pal, prime directive. What is your prime directive?" Xander called out, his inner sci-fi nerd recalling an old episode of the British TV series "Dr. Who" as well as the reference from "Star Trek".

"I have none at the moment," the cyborg replied, after taking a moment to scan his internal files and memory engrams. "Mother never got around to installing that particular behaviour parameter before I terminated her existence."

"So why'd you kill her?" Buffy demanded. ( _Not that I'm complaining all that much after she tried to kill me, of course, but still._ )

"I found it necessary to do that when it became evident that Mother intended to introduce a certain device into my system that would have made me completely obedient to her will," Adam supplied. "However, I was able to wait until she had fitted me with equipment like GP-2 D-11 infrared detectors, a harmonic decelerator, and a tissue bio-modulator. Until she had made me...complete."

"So what now?" Cordelia asked. "I mean, you do know that the mad scientist lady would have wanted you to take a chill pill right about this point, don't you?"

"Yes, if I understand your slang term correctly. But I need to determine who I am, as well as what I am. I cannot do that if I allow myself to go off-line and be disassembled, which is the most likely outcome of events if I do as you say. That would not be what Mother wanted." The cyborg shook its head. "I still have so much to learn."

"You need to learn how to start following orders right the hell now if you don't want to be sent to the scrap heap," Riley spoke up angrily. "Now disarm yourself and surrender. This is your last opportunity!"

"Riley..." Xander said worriedly, as getting the monster of the week angry was usually a good recipe for disaster.

Adam took out a disk labelled "FINN" and inserted it into his chest. A few moments later he said, "Special Agent Riley Finn. Interesting. Mother created you too."

"What?!" Cordelia exclaimed in shock, as everyone looked at Riley.

"You're crazy!" Finn ranted, refusing to believe what he was hearing. "I'm not a machine, and Dr. Walsh wasn't my mother or anything!"

"Yes. But after you met her, Mother was the one who shaped your basic operating system. She taught you how to think, how to feel. She fed you certain chemicals to make you stronger – mind and body both. Her records state clearly that you and I were her favorite children. That makes us brothers. Family."

"SHUT UP!!" Riley looked on the verge of losing it again. "I'm a human being, and you're just a botched science experiment. I'm nothing like you!"

"You're feeling pain, aren't you? Is it because your chemical intake has been disrupted, thanks to Mother's recent death?" the cyber-demonoid inquired. "Or is it human grief that you're feeling? I honestly can't tell."

Goaded into a frenzy, Riley got out his sidearm to open fire but Adam quickly moved in closer and easily batted the gun away. Buffy leaped in with a kick to Adam's chest, but he just punched her in the face afterwards. Rolling with the blow, the Slayer slammed her fist into Adam's stomach – but to no effect.

Adam chopped at her shoulder, and Buffy fell down for the count.

Dr. Angleman had had enough and started to run for it, heading towards the door. Seeing this, Adam's Polgara demon skewer came out. "Doctor," Adam said levelly.

The cyborg emotionlessly skewered the human in the middle of his back and out through his chest; with one last gasp Angleman fell down, thoroughly dead. While the hybrid creature was distracted, Riley grabbed Adam around the throat from behind.

Up until now, Xander had been sticking close to Cordelia, determined to protect her at all costs. But he suddenly saw an opportunity, and raised his pistol to aim at the amalgam of human, demon and mechanical parts.

The gunshot was loud, almost deafening in the close quarters, but Xander's bullet hit Adam directly in his human eye.

He didn't fall down dead or incapacitated, unfortunately; Adam just howled in agony as he threw Riley aside while clutching at his ruined ocular component. "Very...interesting. So this is pain," the creature remarked to no one in particular.

The Initiative's soldiers started banging on the door from the outside, having heard the gun go off. "Thank you for the information provided during this interaction. We will be seeing each other again soon," Adam said to everyone as he leaped back up to the platform he had first appeared from and then raced out of the room, via the closest convenient vent.

Riley got up as Xander yanked open the door, only to find the military personnel pointing their blasters in his face. "Drop the gun, you! The rest of you men, secure the room!" Forrest yelled out as he stormed in and the others followed.

Xander complied as Gates spied the dead Dr. Angleman. "What the hell happened here?" the commando demanded.

"All of you, stand down," Riley said as the troopers lowered their weapons. "We, we have a situation."

"Yeah, got that right. Something that Maggie Walsh created is calling itself Adam, and it looks part human and part monster. It killed the good doctor here before it went out through that air vent, up there. I managed to shoot it in the eye, so you guys need to put together a search party and hunt it down while it's still wounded," Xander told the commandos.

"Right, and I'm supposed to simply take your word for all that?" Forrest growled. He'd just spied Buffy getting up with Cordelia's help, and his jealousy and dislike of the blonde Slayer automatically spilled over to include her groupies.

"No. You're supposed to take MY word for it, agent," Finn said, pulling rank on the other man. Riley started shaking, as the withdrawal symptoms flared up again. "Now do as he said." No response. "Go on, do it! Now!"

Gates threw Riley and the others a glare before he went off to carry out his orders, obviously very unhappy with the situation. Graham Miller stepped forward to assist his commander. "Riley, you need to go get checked out at the infirmary like everyone else. We're gonna need you at 100 percent for this. Now that both Dr. Walsh and Dr. Angleman are gone, 'til the new C.O. gets here you're the one who's in command of the outfit."

Riley almost collapsed, but Buffy managed to grab him before he did so. "I know where the infirmary is, Graham. I'll take him there," she promised Agent Miller, who nodded and stepped aside.

"Well, this is just great," Cordelia complained to her significant other as they tagged along behind the other couple and the Initiative agents. "There's a homicidal Terminator demon on the loose, the people who created him are dead and the guy currently in charge of this place is a drug addict. I'd say we've hit rock bottom."

Xander smiled, he honestly couldn't help it. "Reminds me of the time you said something like that when we had to deal with the Judge, honey, and look how that one turned out."

"Sure. But this time I don't think just firing a rocket up the bad guy's ass is going to do the trick," Cordy said somewhat sourly as they followed Buffy and Riley to the medical wing.

"Yeah, you're probably right. That Adam thing was smart, tough and way too fast for my liking," Xander conceded. "Looks like Walsh really outdid herself on this one, the crazy bitca. But we'll manage somehow, we always do."

If there was one thing that Cordelia Chase had truly hated ever since childhood, it was being told a comforting lie like that.

TBC...


	5. You Gotta Have Faith

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to everyone who has sent reviews and feedback. Speaking of which, one person wrote and said, "What's going on here? You bring Spike in right at the start, and then he totally disappears, barely even rates a mention during the fourth chapter!" To this person we say, "Have faith. Spike will be back eventually. There is a purpose to this madness!!" (cue eruption of cackling laughter). Anyway, please keep on reviewing. Seriously. And now, on with the story...

* * *

**Part Five: You Gotta Have Faith **

**Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale, California**

**February 25th, 2000**

**1:44 pm**

Sunnydale was relatively quiet at the moment.

Adam had easily given his pursuers the slip that night and seemed to have gone into some sort of recovery mode or holding pattern. Harmony also was laying low and was currently holed up in her crypt reading a book called 'A Treatise on the Mythology and Methodology of the Vampire Slayer'. This was in preparation for becoming, in her mind, the newest and baddest Big Bad.

A young woman was currently vegetating in the dark coma ward of Sunnydale's largest hospital the way she had been for the last eight months or so. The coma victim's name was Faith Lehane, and she was the latest incarnation of the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's successor once removed and supposedly a champion for the forces of good. Unfortunately, however, Faith had a killed a man last year and gone bad afterwards, falling ever deeper into a quicksand of darkness and evil.

Very few people ever came here apart from the nurses and doctors. In fact, the last occasion had been roughly a week ago when Xander had come around just to check that Faith was still alive, after Cordelia had asked him about the fallen Slayer. He hadn't stayed long though. Seeing her like this, despite everything Faith had done, had truly turned Xander's stomach.

Now, even though she was in a coma, Faith's subconscious was still very much active and keeping itself busy. Right at that moment, in a dream, the brunette Slayer was having a picnic lunch with her father figure, the late and very much unlamented mayor Richard Wilkins the Third.

"Think it's gonna rain?" Faith asked uneasily, looking around the dream park they were in.

"Nonsense," the Mayor replied happily. "It's a beautiful day. Now eat your sandwich, okay?"

Faith still didn't look happy. "I dunno. It just always seems like it starts raining right about this point."

"Now, now. You're too young and pretty to start putting worry lines on your face like that," Wilkins replied charmingly. "I promise, nothing's gonna spoil our quality time together today. So, who wants cheesecake?"

"I don't get it. What did you ever see in him, apart from an evil sugar daddy?" a familiar male voice said behind Faith.

Abruptly, the dream changed as day became night and Faith found herself standing in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. She turned around and found herself face to face with the image of Xander Harris. She had never seen him in her dreams before, but the brunette was able to adapt quickly to the unexpected new presence.

"Hey there, stud. Long time no see," Faith said with a deliberate leer, reflexively reverting to the habits she'd developed to best deal with the male half of the species.

Xander just stared back at her, ignoring the sexual innuendo. "I have a theory, you know. That it wasn't supposed to be like this."

"Like what?" Faith looked up as it started to rain.

"You wearing a black hat," Xander replied calmly as thunder suddenly boomed above him. "Giles said it himself: it's not like Finch was the first ever recorded case of Slayer homicide. It was tragic. But it wasn't premeditated, really more of an accident than anything else. We should have been able to help you work through it, and you shouldn't have ended up working for the Mayor 'cause of that. Always made me wonder why things turned out that way."

"A higher power guiding us?" Faith asked, feeling weird all of a sudden as the night rain started to increase in strength.

"You've made that bed with Buffy often enough for me to have my doubts about that," the dream Xander replied. "Speaking of which..."

Faith lost all semblance of courage as a nightmarish image of Buffy Summers came out of the trees, holding the knife she had used to stab Faith with all those months ago. The dreamer turned and ran as fast as she could go, and yet she seemed unable to escape from her blonde pursuer.

Eventually Faith fell into an empty grave as Buffy disappeared from the dreamscape after attempting to kill her. There was a crash of thunder and lightning as the young woman tried to claw her way out. Then she saw Xander standing at the grave's edge, framed against the stormy sky. He was holding out his hand to her.

"All you need is a little faith, Faith," Harris said with a smile.

The Chosen One grabbed hold of her ex-lover's hand as he hauled her out of there. The very next moment Faith's eyes flew open in the coma ward.

* * *

**Outside 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California**

**Not long after sunset**

Miss Lehane was not in a good mood.

After yanking out all the damned tubes and wires attached to her body, she'd freaked at finding out that Graduation had taken place months ago and that the Mayor was now long dead. Moving on autopilot since her mind was in a daze of confusion, Faith had mugged the first woman she'd met and stolen her clothes, and later made her way to Buffy's house. She had first stopped at the high school, but to her horror it was now just a pile of rubble.

Looking through the window, the dark Slayer watched the Scooby meeting currently taking place with just the tiniest hint of envy. Things obviously hadn't changed much ever since she'd entered dreamland, even if many of the faces she'd been expecting to see were missing. ( _There's G, Red, Joyce, Queen C and Little Miss Perfect...but no sign of Wes, Wolf Boy or Fang. Hmm, can't see Boy Toy anywhere around either. Wonder why the stud ain't here? And who the hell are those other two? He looks like a college beefcake, and Blondie's acting so frickin' shy she..._ )

At that point, Faith saw Buffy answer the telephone and then start to look worried as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the connection. After she hung up, Miss Summers began talking to her companions, and Miss Lehane didn't have to be a lip-reader to know that the white hats had just learned she wasn't in a coma any longer.

Faith left the enemy stronghold, only to run into a former demon minion of Mayor Wilkins not long afterwards.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**Not long before midnight**

"Buffy, what do you think you're doing?" Xander demanded as he pushed the blonde girl away.

Faith-in-Buffy smirked, having just ferociously kissed the former class clown after following him into his bedroom and locking the door behind her. "Come on, Xander, you always wanted this didn't you?" she declared confidently, as she indicated her body with a wave of her hand. After switching bodies with Buffy earlier in the evening, thanks to a posthumous gift from the Mayor, Faith was planning to make all the guy's high school fantasies come true tonight.

Xander's residual James Bond instincts were screaming to get her naked and to hell with the condoms, but luckily Harris was able to ignore them. "Not anymore I don't. Oh my God – you're under a spell again, aren't you?" he asked in genuine concern. "I mean, come on, Buff, what about you and Riley?"

"Riley?" Faith-in-Buffy asked uncertainly.

"Riley Finn, your...hang on! If you were Buffy, you'd have known who he is." Xander's eyes narrowed suspiciously, his internal secret agent instincts abruptly changing direction. "All right, that's it – who the hell are you? Some sort of shape-shifter demon?"

( _Shit,_ ) Faith-in-Buffy cursed, her plans now thoroughly ruined. ( _Guess that means game's over._ ) "Okay, I'm outta here-"

SLAM!

"What was that?" Xander asked, heading for the bureau drawer but keeping Faith-in-Buffy in sight the whole time. He grabbed a stake just as the bedroom door was kicked open, splintering the lock.

"Faith?!" Xander yelled, as he saw someone who he thought was the enemy burst into the room. He raised the stake, cursing himself for not having kept the gun he'd used in the Initiative that night.

The dark-haired Slayer just glared at the other Slayer present. "You, you..." Buffy-in-Faith hissed. Then she yelled accusingly at Xander, "Did you do anything with this SLUT tonight? And the answer had better be no!"

The young man stiffened. "HEY! Now I resent that, missy, because I happen to taken. In the happy boyfriend sort of way. And not that it's any of your business, but I totally learned my lesson years ago!"

Buffy-in-Faith looked very pleased to hear it. While she was distracted Faith-in-Buffy took the opportunity to try to escape, but Cordelia and Giles arrived at precisely the wrong moment and a big fight between the two Slayers subsequently took place.

Which resulted in, amongst other things, the security deposit on Xander and Cordelia's apartment becoming nothing but a memory...

* * *

**The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California**

**February 26th, 2000**

**12:33 am**

"So what are we gonna do with her?" Cordelia asked, gesturing to the unconscious and restrained Faith-in-Buffy who was being carefully monitored by Xander.

The group had decided to bring the body-stealing blonde here instead of staying at the damaged apartment, so they'd just locked the front door behind them and carried away their prisoner. The former rich girl was pissed about what had happened to her home, but then she glanced over towards Buffy-in-Faith, and a tacit understanding was established between the two alpha females to call a truce to all the usual hostilities until the current mess was resolved.

Giles took off his glasses and said with some concern, "Do with her? Well, uh, that is...a very good question."

"Gee, can you believe that the Council actually let this guy go?" Buffy-in-Faith asked snarkily.

"Oh! Yes, I-I-I almost forgot, there's a Watcher wetworks team in town. I ran into them earlier on, and they're looking for you – er, that is, they're looking for Faith," Rupert hastily corrected himself. "I'm not sure what their plans are, exactly, but Smith, Weatherby and Collins are certainly not planning to shower her with gifts, I'm sure."

"Yesterday's news, Giles, I already kicked their asses. Now can we get on with putting me back in my own body already?" Buffy-in-Faith asked.

"First, tell me exactly how this happened," Giles commanded her.

The currently brunette Slayer obliged. "Well, Faith grabbed me wearing some kind of clasp-y bracelet thing on her hand. I don't know what it was, but it looked gold-colored with a large jewel or something in the middle of it. Very tacky-looking, to tell you the truth, but it suited Faith perfectly. And when she grabbed my hand with that darn thing, it kinda felt like a big electric shock went through me," Buffy-in-Faith explained. "Then there was this flash of light, and when I could see again I was in here," she said, indicating her new body. "Looking at myself."

"Well, uh, i-it sounds to me like it could have been a Draconian katra device," Giles mused, recalling something he'd read about back at the Watchers Academy decades ago. "That, um, that requires physical contact between the two people wh-whose bodies are being switched. Er, I'm right in assuming the device has been lost ever since Faith used it on you?" the British man asked.

"It wasn't there when I woke up from after she knocked me out, so I think you can take that as a big honking 'yeah'," Buffy-in-Faith said in exasperation.

"Right. Well, there's a transferral spell I know which might be able to help," Giles mused absently.

"Transferral spell?" Xander finally spoke up, glancing across at the ex-Watcher.

"Well, yes. You see, Buffy's consciousness or katra, despite its present location, s-still has a metaphysical link to its original body over there," Rupert gestured to the sleeping Faith. "The device's mystical energy, o-or whatever caused the transfer, is most likely what's keeping both their katras from returning back to their true homes. I-if we can disrupt the energy for long enough, I think we'd be able to reverse the effects of the device."

"Cool! So then let's do it," the conscious Slayer proclaimed at once.

"No, it's, it's not that simple. That ritual – it requires a level of power I'm not sure I possess," Giles confessed. "I mean, I've done some spellcasting in the past, but my record in the field i-i-is anything but a shining example of all things good and pure," the man added, recalling his catastrophe with Eyghon back in his wilder youth.

"Come on, G-man. You were able to help me deal last year, remember?" Xander asked, referring to the work Giles had done suppressing his potentially crippling James Bond memories.

"And who else is gonna do it? Willow? The only big success she's ever had is cursing Angel with a soul, and that might not even have been her," Cordelia threw her two cents' worth into the conversation.

"Because I was there, and I still don't know whether or not Willow got possessed at the time. Y'know, it could have been someone or something was being channeled through her in order to get the job done," she said. "And if you're considering asking Tara? We don't know her well enough yet for something like this. So bottom line, Giles, you're it. I mean, I'm sure Buffy doesn't want to spend the rest of her life in there!" She gestured at the foreign body Miss Summers currently occupied.

"Yeah, I sure don't," Buffy-in-Faith agreed wholeheartedly. "Giles, c'mon, you have to do this. Please."

"Very well," Giles sighed.

A few minutes later their captive finally woke up. "Gotta say, B, I can tell you're not keeping up with the old Slayer training these days, y'know? This body, definitely feeling the weight gain," Faith-in-Buffy smirked at the brunette. "Ever thought about going to the gym once in a while?"

"Shut up, you bitch," Buffy-in-Faith hissed. "If that wasn't my mouth you're speaking out of, I'd punch you so hard my teeth would go flying out the back of my neck. Now be quiet unless you want me to gag you again!"

"Hey, Jeeves! I see they invited you to the party. But where's the rest of the gang?" Faith-in-Buffy asked merrily upon seeing the ex-Watcher. "Out partying, right? It's Friday night after all. But I guess an unemployed has-been like you doesn't have anything better to do than be here, huh?"

"Faith, it's been a long time. And I see that despite current appearances your long period of sleep hasn't helped you improve in any significant way at all," Giles said with a strong hint of disapproval. The Englishman was finding it hard to stomach how his former charge had willingly sunk so low like this.

That attitude only pissed off Faith-in-Buffy completely. "You really need to get laid, old man. You know that, right? Too bad odds are the only action you'll ever see is Mother Thumb and her four daughters."

"So says the killer who belongs in jail being Big Bertha's butt buddy," Cordelia said scathingly. She alone truly had no problem dealing with Faith in Buffy's body, as she disliked both Slayers, albeit not to the same level of course.

Her taunts fell on deaf ears as Giles continued setting up for his transferral spell. Xander himself began securely tying up Buffy-in-Faith after injecting her with some sort of yellow chemical in a syringe. "How's that?"

"Tighter. Otherwise, she might be able to get loose," Buffy-in-Faith grated.

"What are you guys doing?" the other Slayer asked, curious.

Xander finished with the ropes. "Well, here's the thing, Faith. Buffy wants her body back, so we're doin' our best to oblige. I've just injected her with a lot of that Crucia-whatsit drug and tied her up, so that once we switch you two back to where you belong – you won't be a threat to anybody."

Faith-in-Buffy began to struggle furiously. "Like hell!"

"Sorry. No Slayer strength anymore, as I'm sure you must have guessed by now. I already injected you as well with a big dose of the stuff while you were sleeping. Now you just sit there and relax. This'll all be over soon," Harris taunted her, indulging in a bit of payback.

The renegade Chosen One paid him no heed and kept on struggling until Giles finished his incantation. "The inward eye, the sightless sea...Ayala flows through the river in me. Return what was switched unto where it should be!"

Two glowing spheres of blue-white light enveloped both Faith and Buffy, before they exploded like a mini-supernova and Cordelia, Giles and Xander had to cringe and look away. When they were able to look back at the two females, Buffy said joyfully, "It worked! I'm me again, thank God. Xander, untie me already!"

"Not so fast. What's the code phrase we agreed on just now?" Xander asked, glancing over toward Faith.

"Ampata wasn't evil, and I had you to bring me back."

Xander's eyes lit up. "That's the Buffster all right!" He quickly untied his friend, who hugged him intensely.

"So what now?" Faith asked, deliberately attempting to look bored. "What were you guys planning to do with me, y'know, afterwards?"

Xander, Buffy and Cordelia all turned to Giles. "Yeah, that's what I wanted to know," the Chase girl nodded. "We can't just hand her over to the cops, can we?"

"No. The Sunnydale police are not only corrupt and thoroughly incompetent, th-they wouldn't know what to do with a Slayer even if they knew such people existed," Giles said, shaking his head. "Um, what about the Council?"

"Been there. Tried that. Not unlike being offered a live grenade and then getting asked to make friends with it, in my experience," Buffy said sarcastically.

"What about Riley?" Giles asked. "I know the Initiative's been shown to be relatively untrustworthy, but surely h-he's still someone we can rely on-"

"Initiative? And yo, who the hell is this Riley character?" Faith interrupted since she wanted to know who and what they were talking about, and she remembered Xander's comments from not long ago.

"Buffy's new boyfriend," Cordy said with a certain amount of anticipation in her voice.

"WHAT? Are you telling me that the guy B stabbed me for, she ain't even dating him any longer?!" Faith yelled, the cold rage instantly swallowing her whole. "What the hell happened to Fang? He finally end up dust?"

"No, actually, Buffy and Angel, are, are no longer together. He left town after Graduation, Faith," Giles told the captive Slayer, noting Buffy's almost-hidden grimace. "He's currently in Los Angeles according to what I've heard. But that's irrelevant right now. The question remains, w-what are we to do with you?"

Xander spoke up, "Guys, I'd like to speak with Faith alone for a few minutes."

Cordelia instantly shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea-"

"Please, Cor. For me?"

It was impossible to resist those big pleading chocolate-brown eyes, not ever since they'd gotten back together, so Cordelia just grabbed both Buffy and Giles and reluctantly hauled them out of the room. ( _You so owe me for this one, mister. We're talking back massages and foot rubs for a month, not to mention a romantic weekend in Santa Monica plus a shopping trip all the way along Rodeo Drive!_ )

Xander focused on the rogue Slayer and asked, "I have a couple of questions. And the first one is, why?"

"Why what?" the Slayer replied with an attempt at an innocent look.

"Come on, Faith. I know we have this little thing between us called history, but the last time we were alone together you tried to kill me. And yet tonight, you acted like you wanted to have sex with me. 'Kinks or vanilla', isn't that how you put it? I mean, why? Was it to hurt Buffy, or me?"

His matter-of-fact tone somehow made Miss Lehane reconsider her original smart-ass reply. "Little bit of both," she eventually said. "But I guess there's also the fact that I had a dream about you..." Faith then proceeded to fill Xander in on the way his dream self had helped her out of that grave, just before she'd woken up.

Harris thoughtfully considered her for a few moments. Finally he went with his instincts and said, "The only way out of here is through that door, and the others are standing guard on the other side. And we both know that right now, with that drug you've been given, the best you could do is just hit me like a girl. So if I untie you...will you give me your word that you'll stay put? Will you swear by your first Watcher's memory that you won't do anything stupid?"

"Sure, why not?" Faith shrugged.

"I'm gonna need some better convincing than that, Little Miss Body Thief," Xander said coldly.

"Fine, I swear by Diana's memory that I'll be a good girl 'til I get my strength back. Satisfied?" the Chosen One growled.

Xander didn't reply, he just silently released her from her bonds. Faith wasn't sure why, but she suspected that that "have a little faith" thing she'd mentioned might have had an unexpected impact on him. "Now what?"

"Time for my second question. What do you intend to do now?" Xander asked.

"What do you mean?" the young woman cocked her head slightly.

"Well, there's this Watcher hit team that's come to town to assassinate you. From what I've heard they're practically amateurs, but they're enthusiastic and out there gunning for you. Even if you run away from Sunnydale they'll track you down eventually, no matter where you go. Giles has told me how the Council has all these cool mystical ways to find a Slayer; they've been doing it for thousands of years so it's something they're really good at. Which means odds are that one day, someone somewhere will kill you for everything you've done. So like I said before, what do you intend to do now?"

Xander's casual tone only made Faith angry. "What do you care, either way?"

"I care, Faith. Oddly enough I can't help it. Like it or not, you were my first and that actually means something to me. Not all guys are just their John Thomas in action, if you know what I mean?" Xander asked in that calm tone of voice that was really starting to infuriate her.

"John Thomas?"

"Sorry. British slang, it occasionally pops up ever since I became James Bond during Halloween last year. Go figure," Xander shrugged, ignoring Faith's surprise. "I just meant that the one night we spent together, different circumstances, maybe it coulda led to something special. It wasn't just a meaningless lay for me, even if that was all it was for you."

Miss Lehane snarled, "Fine. Then the answer to your second question is, I'm open to any good ideas!"

Xander outlined a plan of action. After Faith apologized to Buffy for what she'd done tonight, he and Giles – assuming the British man could be talked into it – would help her pull a fast one on the Watchers who wanted the Boston girl dead. In other words, they would stop her heart long enough for the next Slayer to be called before reviving her.

The Council would instantly know a new Chosen One had been activated, and assume the wetworks team had finally done their job or that Faith had ended up dead another way. And once the Watchers were off her back, Faith would leave town and never return.

"How do I know you guys won't just kill me?" Faith asked point-blank.

Xander shrugged. "I guess you're just going to have to have a little faith in me."

"Why are you really doing this?" Faith subsequently demanded. "The truth, Boy Toy. Or I take my chances on the run."

"Fine. It's because I want you out of Sunnydale permanently on a friendly basis, without you and Buffy having some sort of grudge match. Don't get me wrong, I think the odds are the Buffster would win if it came to that; but I prefer not taking any chances with the life of one of my girls." Xander shrugged again. "Besides, there is also the possibility you'll do some good in this world. Who knows, maybe a fresh start in life is just what you need."

Faith was surprised all over again that he would think so charitably of her after all the insults lately, and so she considered his offer carefully. ( _And there would be three Slayers in the world at the same time? Can't fault the X-man for being able to think outside the box._ ) Eventually she said, "Alright, fine. Answer me one question, and you got yourself a deal."

"And your question is...?"

"You and your ex. What's the what there? The snob finally forgave you for cheating on her?" Faith smirked, determined to get in one last dig before the big event.

"Yeah. Obviously, I'm a very lucky man. It's also why you never actually had a chance with me tonight, whatever body you were in." He stared at her stonily. "So are we done here?"

Faith nodded, and then Xander called the others back into the room. Upon hearing the plan Buffy went ballistic about it, pretty much as expected. But when Xander asked her what else they could do apart from murdering Faith in cold blood, given how not even the Initiative's holding facilities could guarantee the rogue Slayer's incarceration, Buffy quickly turned quiet. Cordelia was very much against the plan too, but in the end, Xander managed to talk her around as well.

Less than an hour later, it was done...

But something very unexpected happened.

Kelkor's spell last year had modified its targets in ways that they couldn't possibly understand. Cordelia becoming the psychic named Solitaire had given her an affinity to one aspect of the Slayer essence. And due to her proximity before Faith was revived...

It ended up inside her.

All the Slayer psychic stuff, the ability to sense vampires and the prophetic dreams, passed into Miss Chase, while the potential Slayer named Kennedy got all the physical powers and healing abilities. It was all utterly unprecedented...

And despite the information provided by their seers, it was also something that the Watchers Council simply could not believe at first. Not at all.

TBC...


	6. Of Superstars and SexAThons

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Not much else to say, except thanks to everyone who's reviewed and sent feedback. You know who you are, and you make it worthwhile to keep going with this fanfic.

* * *

**Part Six: Of Superstars and Sex-A-Thons**

**Truman Drive, Sunnydale, California**

**March 7th, 2000**

**6:32 pm**

Buffy and Xander were walking along the street side by side, silently thinking about recent events.

The blonde girl had recently fought a couple of vampires, with her Slayerettes backing her up, and she had not done very well. Miss Summers wasn't sure if it was because she was distracted by everything that had happened lately, but in Xander's mind there was no doubt that the encounter with Faith had greatly shaken Buffy up.

The Chosen One simply didn't get it. She asked herself yet again, just HOW had Xander managed to get through to that evil body-stealing 'ho? Okay, Buffy knew that he had successfully appealed to Faith's self-interest, but why hadn't the crazy murderess simply told him to go to hell? Buffy knew that Faith was utterly contemptuous of the guys she'd had sex with, which was evidenced by how she had tried to strangle Xander last year. Every instinct inside Buffy's mind said that it should have been impossible for her male-shaped friend to succeed where she herself had failed.

Because Xander, despite everything he'd gone through over the last four years, was just an ordinary guy and Faith was a fellow Slayer. Someone that only she, Buffy, could truly understand with their shared history and mystical lineage. If there was anyone the blonde would have thought couldn't bring the fallen Chosen One back to the good side of the Force, even that tiniest little bit before Faith had disappeared out of town, that person would have been...

...the normal guy of the group.

( _Is my judgement truly that lousy?_ ) Buffy asked herself unhappily. ( _God, if it is...what else could have I screwed up without even realizing it?_ ) The Slayer quickly squelched this line of thought, though. That big aching hole in her heart from when Angel had left her after Graduation had yet to be filled, despite her relationship with Riley.

Xander himself was thinking about other things. The situation with Cordelia had been rather rough lately. They had been fighting a lot and she had been tossing and turning at nights. The brunette girl had been having terrible nightmares: Cordy had dreamed about Spike killing her in 1900 China, and again in 1977 New York. She had also dreamt that the Master had killed her in his underground church three years ago.

She had dreamed that Drusilla had killed her by slicing her throat open in the library two years ago.

She had dreamed that her boyfriend had killed her in Giles's apartment, Xander's concerned face merely inches from her own.

Harris could remember his girlfriend coming over to him while he'd been doing CPR on Faith and saying that she suddenly felt weird. "It feels like something just went right through me," were Miss Chase's precise words. It hadn't taken long to figure out that the Slayer spirit had indeed gone through her as it left Faith, and she'd snagged the vamp sensing thing as well as the dreams.

And since Xander was the one who'd come up with the idea of calling a new Slayer, he believed what had happened to Cordelia was basically all his fault.

( _If we don't find a way to fix this, and soon, we're eventually gonna have one fight too many and Cordy's gonna leave me. I'm sure of it,_ ) Harris thought unhappily as he and Buffy arrived at their destination. ( _Still, I guess that's all up to Giles and those Council assholes he's been in contact with. Myself, I've got other fish to fry right at the moment._ )

Xander and the Slayer entered the house and arrived at a large study. "Uh, hi. We have a problem," Buffy said hesitantly.

The chair behind the desk spun around to reveal the short, stocky Jonathan Levinson, dressed very sharply in a black turtleneck. The young man was smiling and exuding pure confidence. "Sounds like you could use my help."

* * *

**The Initiative base, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**March 8th, 2000**

**5:35 pm**

Even though no one knew it yet, Jonathan had done something he really shouldn't have. The amateur warlock had cast an augmentation spell, something to make him the central focus of the world. The best and the bravest, a paragon of all that was good and virtuous.

Luckily, when the spell was being cast he hadn't let the power go to his head. For the most part it was a nice fantasy, except for one thing Jonathan hadn't counted on.

For the balance to be maintained an evil monster, as bad as Jonathan was good, had been born. It would soon start terrorizing people, including the newest Scooby, Tara Maclay. But right now, Jonathan was attending a very important meeting, waiting for his cue to step in.

The new commanding officer of the Initiative said, "For those of you who don't already know, my name is Colonel George Havilland. I'm in command here until such time as the facility review is completed. This review, however, does not mean our primary mission is changed in any way. Recovery of the hostile known as Adam is our first and most important job. To this end, I've asked our tactical consultant to address us today. Mr. Levinson?"

"Thank you, Colonel." Jonathan stepped up to the table. "Xander, the schematics please." Harris spread out the blueprints as Levinson went on, "Gentlemen, before we locate Adam we need to understand him better. And there's something that's bothered me almost right from the start about how the prototype doesn't eat. We've known him to kill, but never to eat the kill. So I pulled Professor Walsh's original design schematics, and I've learned something very disturbing. Adam's power source isn't in fact biological in nature. It's right here," he pointed to the center of the chest in the skeletal schematic. "The design attempts to hide it, but my analysis indicates there's a small reservoir of Uranium-235 present that's powering the enemy."

The Initiative personnel looked shocked. "So that's why he didn't roll over and play dead when I shot him in the eye," Xander commented.

"Exactly. It also means that simply cutting off his head is useless. Killing Adam means annihilating him completely. To borrow a phrase, the only solution is the final solution," Jonathan said grimly.

"About the power source, sir. How long will it last?" Riley spoke up.

"Effectively just this side of forever. Dr. Walsh saw to that, unfortunately," Levinson replied. "So all things considered, gentlemen, we have a big problem on our hands. But the question of just how we annihilate Adam can wait for the moment. Our priority has to be to find him first."

* * *

**Sunnydale Public Library, Sunnydale, California**

**A short while later**

The focus of the Initiative's attention was sitting before a row of computer screens, absorbing countless amounts of data from the different feeds. There were a number of corpses nearby, victims of the unexpected raid today. Adam just ignored them and said to a vampire minion of his, "This Jonathan person. Tell me, who is he?"

Harmony looked shocked. "Uh, you're joking right? Jonathan is Jonathan. Look."

All five screens now had scenes of Jonathan doing something: either advertising tennis shoes, starring in the movie "Being Jonathan Levinson", signing his book "Oh Jonathan", or whatever. It was just as the magic spell had been designed to do, to make him everyone's ideal representation of a true hero.

"These are all lies," Adam said as he turned off the monitors. "None of this is real. The entire world has been changed, which of course is intriguing. But nonetheless wrong."

Harmony looked all around herself and back to her new boss. "Uh, everything feels okay to me."

Adam replied, "That's because you're under his spell, just like everyone else. I seem to be the only one who isn't."

"Really? So what makes you so special?"

Adam turned around, and the vampiress saw a set of mismatched demon eyes; the replacement for the lost human eye now a bright fluorescent green orb like that of a Mok'tagar demon. "I'm self-aware to an extent that no other being is. If I wish, I can perceive every single molecule both around and within me. No one – human or demon – has ever been as awake and alive as I am. Your shadowy awareness pales before mine."

The bloodsucker wasn't sure what to say to that. "Oh. Okay. Well, what do you want to do now?" She thought about it and then said enthusiastically, "Hey, you could kill Jonathan!" Then Harmony shrugged. "Well, you could try anyway. He's like a real-life action hero, y'know? It's no wonder why I had SUCH a crush on him back in high school!"

The cyber-demonoid shook his head, dismissing the hired help's opinion. "I don't need to do anything. These magicks are inherently unstable and corrosive. They will inevitably lead to chaos. And I am interested in chaos."

* * *

**April Fools Dress Shoppe, Sunnydale, California**

**March 9th, 2000**

**10:40 am**

Adam had been quite correct in his hypothesis about trouble and chaos arriving soon, as Buffy got suspicious and the Scooby gang soon figured out how the superstar had done his spell to make everyone think he was totally cool. Eventually, the spell had ended when the evil monster had been slain in a fight.

A glum Jonathan had later explained to Buffy how a kid who had attended the same psychiatric counselling session had told him how to do what he'd done. The whole monster part of the magicks had been glossed over, though. Luckily for Jonathan Buffy remembered what he'd done after the mojo had been terminated, almost getting killed trying to help her put an end to it all. After she'd talked to her friends, everyone was willing to forgive the young man for his...overactive imagination.

Well, almost everyone.

"WHERE IS HE? I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!" Anya screamed, as she chased Jonathan into Cordelia's work place.

"Help me..." the nerd panted as he hid behind Xander.

"Hey! Not in my store!" Cordelia said firmly, looking around to make sure the storeowner wasn't present. "All of you, outside!" She grabbed Anya and hauled her out the front door, as Xander did the same with Jonathan. "Alright, now what's your damage?" Miss Chase demanded of the other female.

"You have to ask? I GAVE myself to that odious little toad!" Anya ranted furiously, who was still peeking out nervously from behind Xander's back.

Harris sighed. Ever since the spell had been undone, he'd felt different. Less than what he'd been, no longer the ass-kicker who'd served alongside the superstar. But Xander knew he owed Jonathan for his advice that had helped smooth things over with Cordelia: to finally tell his girlfriend he loved her with all his heart, and that he would do everything he could to help her. So the young man said, "Anya, I'd like to ask you a question. Besides the spell itself, did Jonathan actually do anything to you that you didn't want him to?"

"That's not the point!" Anya said hotly. "The point is, it wasn't real. We gave each other orgasms under false pretences. He committed sexual perjury!"

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "And that's what's really annoying you? Not the fact you were dumb enough to fall for Jonathan's little fantasy role-play like all the rest of us?"

Anya glared at the brunette for a moment before she turned to look at Levinson. "Before I kill you, I want to know just how much of all that was faked and how much wasn't. I mean, you do have a published swimsuit calendar, right?" she demanded.

"Uh, no, I don't," Jonathan admitted in his nasal reedy voice, finally coming out from behind Xander to face up to the consequences of his actions.

"Did you star in 'The Matrix'?" Anya then asked with a frown.

"Nope."

"Did you invent the Internet?"

"No, can't say that I did."

"Oh, come on! You must at least have written that book of yours which I liked so much, didn't you?" Anya demanded in exasperation.

"Uh-uh, I'm afraid not," Jonathan said apologetically. "Look, Anya, I'm sorry if you think I've betrayed you in some way. I just want to say that I, I never meant to hurt you or anything, and, uh, before you kill me – you're the most incredible girl I've ever met. I mean, i-if there's anyone in the world that I could have chosen to lose my virginity to, it's you."

Xander and Cordelia both rolled their eyes but Anya's righteous fury suddenly began to ebb away. She just couldn't help it. "Really?"

"Yeah. So, um, go ahead. Unless you want to beat me to death in that alley over there in private?" Jonathan pointed down the street.

"Well, that would hardly take any time at all, so where's the fun in that?" Anya asked heatedly, suddenly switching gears. "Jonathan, I've changed my mind. Instead of getting tortured to death you're going to become my personal slave. And you're also going to give me as many orgasms as your inferior male reproductive organs are capable of achieving. Wherever and whenever I ask for them. Once I feel that sufficient time and service has elapsed, I will then release you from your bondage. Unless of course, you beg me not to."

"What?" Jonathan said, eyes wide.

"Sorry, Jon boy. But you do the crime, that means you gotta do the time," Xander said philosophically, trying to hide the smirk that was threatening to take over his face.

"And the punishment certainly fits the crime," Cordy said nastily. She shuddered when she thought about just how many fantasies she'd had regarding this geek lately, and most likely the female teenager would have killed Jonathan herself if she'd been weak-willed enough to give into Levinson's charismatic attractiveness during the spell.

Not that it would have lasted anyway if she had, because superstar or not, Jonathan wasn't the type to keep Cordelia's interest for long. Miss Chase needed someone who could challenge her, insults and all, and the only person around here who could accomplish that was Xander. Ever since elementary school, Harris had been the only one who'd never been subservient or worshipped at her altar, which was part of why he'd become so attractive to Cordy in the first place.

Anya grabbed Jonathan by the ear and dragged him off down the street, ignoring his yelps of pain. Xander and Cordelia kissed the way young couples do when they're in love, before they went their separate ways. She went back to work, and Harris headed for Giles's place to see if anything new had been learned with regard to his beloved getting rid of her unwanted Slayer heritage.

* * *

**Lowell House, UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale**

**March 16th, 2000**

**7:49 pm**

Things started moving more quickly now that spring had arrived, and the time of the annual Hellmouth apocalypse had begun to approach.

Adam had started doing a Martin Luther King impersonation, bridging the gap between the various demon races as part of his master plan. What that master plan was exactly was still a secret, even from his most trusted lieutenants, but for the first time in the Council's recorded history vampires and demons were playing nice, and that worried Giles no end. It worried the Scooby gang and the Initiative people too, as a united front from the demon world was the last thing they needed.

Buffy and Riley started dealing with it in their own way, with round-the-clock acts of nakedness both in her dorm and in Riley's quarters. It became a running joke with the rest of their friends about whether those two would ever come up for air, given the constant moaning and thumping sounds coming from their bedrooms. Well, like they say, everyone copes with stress however they can.

Tonight, a party was taking place at the frat house for the other soldiers in this war to also let off some steam. Everyone was there, and appeared to be enjoying themselves. Riley was talking with his fellow Initiative agents, while Buffy was talking to her own friends.

"Yo, Rye. What do you think, should we spike the punch with something a bit more exotic than whatever's in it right now?" Forrest asked his friend.

"Probably not a good idea," Graham spoke up. "You never know if we might need to get real sober real fast."

"Yeah, what he said," Riley added vaguely, his eyes fastened on Buffy.

Across the room the Slayer was staring right back at him, even as Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Tara were having their own conversation. "Uh, is that Anya?" Tara pointed to the ex-demon who was not far away talking to someone else.

"Yeah, and that looks like Jonathan standing right beside her," Willow pointed out.

"He is so whipped nowadays," Cordelia observed, smirking. "I for one don't think we need to worry about the reappearance of Super-Jonathan anytime soon, considering how often he's probably getting laid."

Xander nodded. "What do you think, Buff? Jonathan's gonna behave from now on?"

"Huh?" the Chosen One muttered. "Oh, uh, yeah, I guess so. Excuse me." Leaving her buddies behind she walked over to Riley, and as if of one mind, she and the Alpha team leader headed off upstairs after making the flimsiest excuse imaginable to Graham and Forrest.

"Three guesses what those two are gonna get up to, and the first two don't count," Forrest said in annoyance. "God, what does he even see in her?"

Graham stared at his teammate sharply; he'd known that Forrest had a big problem with the Slayer, but up until now, Gates had kept his opinions to himself. It looked like maybe it was intervention time to prevent his friend from digging himself in too deep a hole that was already deep enough.

Not far away, Cordelia made her own comment regarding Buffy and Riley's bedroom habits. "Those two are like the Energizer bunny lately, I swear to God!"

"Well, it's not like you and Xander don't do exactly the same thing," Willow told her bluntly.

"It's called discretion, Willow, look it..." Miss Chase trailed off. "Xander? What are you doing?"

Xander had leaned his hand on the wall, and was looking startled as he withdrew it. "Oh my God!" He put his hand back and began to shudder. "Oh, wow! Wow!"

"Are you okay?" Tara asked, looking concerned.

Xander withdrew his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. But seriously, check this out. Cordy, put your hand where I just put mine."

"What? What for?" the brunette demanded.

"Just trust me. You'll see."

Looking annoyed, Cordy did so. "What am I-" She then choked and withdrew her hand at once, staring at him with wide eyes. "What the hell was that?"

Concerned, Willow and Tara took their own turns and the warm rush of sexual pleasure overwhelmed both witches as well. Tara couldn't deal with it and ran off towards the nearest bathroom; Willow followed her, concerned about her friend. A friend who had in fact become someone who meant much more to her than just that; Willow's true sexual orientation finally was no longer something she was in complete denial about.

Cordelia and Xander just kept on experimenting with what they had found, and before long Harris gestured with his head towards the nearest closet. Soon enough they were fooling around in private, just like during high school. In fact, they were so busy in there they both completely failed to notice everything going to hell outside.

It took Willow and Tara, along with some assistance from Jonathan and Anya, to go find Giles and deal with the mysteries of the haunted fraternity house. A solution which basically involved casting a spell to summon the spirits of a whole bunch of abused children, 'repressed crybabies' to quote Anya, and stopping Buffy and Riley from killing themselves with their unrestrained lovemaking.

"Where the heck have you two been?" Willow demanded of Xander and Cordy after all the excitement was over, watching a dishevelled Anya and Jonathan limping away from the rest of the group to go home and recover from their ordeal. Miss Rosenberg suddenly saw, though, that Cordelia's pantyhose were ruined in the knees, and immediately began to regret asking that.

"We were, ah, stuck in the closet the whole time," Xander said somewhat lamely, as the group left Lowell House and began walking home.

"So, so, w-what exactly did you two end up doing in there?" Tara stammered.

Xander just grinned a stupid, satisfied grin while Cordy sighed. "Nothing," she said. She turned to Xander. "And nothing won't happen again...ever."

Xander looked at his girlfriend in surprise. "Really? Not even if I..." he looked downwards at her.

Cordelia looked astonished at his offer. "You would?"

Xander nodded. "Well, it's only fair, I guess."

Cordy grinned and took his hand. "We'll see you guys later...much later." The two lovebirds promptly raced off.

Willow looked to Tara. "Goddess, but that image will be stuck in my head for days now." She shuddered, wishing that she could use a Brillo pad to scrub out her brain. "Tara, that forgetting spell you mentioned the other day, the one involving Lethe's Bramble. I don't suppose you've got it handy back in your dorm, by any chance?"

* * *

**Somewhere in Nevada**

**The same time**

Ethan Rayne was moving as fast as he could in the middle of the cold, night-time desert.

The Englishman's stay in the Initiative's rehabilitation facility, while relatively short, hadn't been a very pleasant one. His jailers, although not the brightest stars in the heavens, weren't exactly stupid either. The staff had interrogated him at length, and attempted to 're-educate' him as well. Fortunately the uniformed morons had no idea what he was truly capable of, and Ethan's prayers had finally been answered when one of the army grunts hadn't bothered to check whether he'd kept some supplies after a rather boring hocus-pocus session.

The ease with which Rayne had accomplished his theft was most likely due to the military policeman believing it was all just a bunch of crap, despite all the training and evidence to the contrary. He probably thought Ethan was simply doing a great impersonation of David Copperfield or whatever. But Rayne certainly wasn't going to complain if that was the case. He'd finally managed to escape the detention facility, and that was all which was important.

That, and getting revenge on the people who'd sent him there.

Riley had visited briefly and had pissed off the chaos mage to an incredible extent. So much so Ethan didn't care now how the Initiative was throwing the worlds out of balance, which supposedly went way beyond chaos and into "one hell of a fight". If he managed to redress the problem in the name of personal vengeance, fine.

( _But if not, too bad. Those jammy bastards are in for a world of pain now..._ )

TBC...


	7. At One Stride Comes The Dark

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to all the reviewers and people who have sent feedback. Unfortunately though it is time to announce that this fanfic is coming to an end, there's only one more chapter to go after this one. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the read.

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**Part Seven: At One Stride Comes The Dark**

**The outskirts of Sunnydale, California**

**April 17th, 2000**

**11:12 pm**

The black Dodge Desoto roared its way into the town built upon the Hellmouth, skidding to a halt just past the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' signpost. The driver had been tempted to smash his vehicle through the sign, mostly for his own amusement and old time's sake, but events over the last few months had made him a bit more circumspect about drawing attention to himself.

Spike quickly got out of the car and looked around, surveying his new surroundings. The vampire had just arrived back from Los Angeles where he had been staying ever since last year. William the Bloody hadn't actually intended to stay away for so long, but one thing had led to another and it was only now that he had come back to take care of unfinished business.

Namely, that chip in his cranium.

"Home sweet home," Spike smirked to himself, lighting up a cigarette. ( _Said it before, and I'll say it again most likely. Sod it, the magnificent poof may be a complete wanker, but Angel was bloody well right when he said that I should go to Hell. Hmm, might look up that little twit Harmony before I get settled in. Haven't had a decent shag in ages, after all._ )

So saying, Spike got back into his car and took off down the street, tires smoking from the sudden acceleration.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**April 18th, 2000**

**1:21 am**

Xander and Cordelia were in bed together, sound asleep after a hard day's work.

While Xander had followed the path he'd always been meant for, Cordy's life was very different right now from what it would have been under other circumstances. For example, the April Fools storeowner had been so impressed with his employee that he had promoted her to the rank of senior manager not long ago. Because Miss Chase knew fashion, and all the customers who came into her store left looking much better than what they did coming in. Cordelia earned her new salary by keeping up with the latest trends and making a decent profit while selling at very competitive prices. Even Aura, Kate and Aphrodesia had started shopping there lately.

Yes, Cordelia had a job that she really liked, now that she didn't have to wear a nametag any longer. The young woman had a nice home too, not to mention a boyfriend who was everything she could ever ask for in the sack and then some. It was almost like living in Barbie's dream house.

But there was a snake in paradise. Namely, all the unwanted Slayer psychic stuff.

Cordelia's eyes suddenly snapped open, and she slowly and carefully got up out of bed. Xander shifted a little, unconsciously sensing her departure, but he still remained asleep. Walking as if she was hypnotized, Miss Chase went to the bedroom closet and opened it.

After she did so, Cordelia stepped into another world. The Sunnydale High School of the past.

Suddenly finding herself fully clothed, Cordy looked around as she walked down the main school corridor. Just like Cassandra relishing a vision of an intact Troy, or Eve gazing happily at the Garden of Eden, Queen C sighed in true pleasure as she strolled around in her former domain. Even though she knew it was all gone now, and that this was merely some sort of a dream, Cordelia truly appreciated this little blast from the past; this opportunity to relive her glory days.

"How do you know what you know?" Cordy heard a vaguely familiar female voice say from inside the computer lab as she passed the open classroom door.

( _What? Who said that?_ ) the girl asked herself in surprise. Cordy stopped and peeked inside, seeing someone and something that instantly made her flesh crawl.

The long-dead Computer Science teacher, Jenny Calendar, sitting at her desk and doing a Tarot reading.

"You have to know what to look for," Jenny said cryptically as she placed the cards in the standard positions. "And Tarot is simpler than casting bones, or reading tea leaves."

This was beginning to freak Cordelia out more than a little bit. "Uh, Ms. Calendar? Not to point out the obvious, but you're dead-"

"And you're not supposed to be here," the dream version of Jenny pointed out, turning over the first card. It was the Star. "That should have been your destiny. Well, either that or the Fool. Take your pick."

"I don't get it," Cordelia replied, momentarily annoyed at the perceived insult. "What's this all about?"

Jenny turned over the second card. It was the Chariot. "Free will, it's the most precious ability imaginable. It's what allowed him to find that crystal in Los Angeles. What'll let him go back and change things."

"Who's 'him'? And go back where? Change what things?" Cordelia demanded at once.

Jenny turned over the third card, and Miss Chase gasped. It was the Death card. "Whether you're a king or street sweeper, sooner or later, you dance with the Reaper," the computer teacher quoted from the Bill and Ted movie, looking her companion right in the eyes.

Cordelia now had a severe case of the creeping horrors. "Are you saying, I-I'm supposed to die...?"

Jenny turned over the fourth card. It was the Lovers. "This is what makes the world go around," the undercover gypsy remarked, resuming the cryptic act. "It can save you or damn you, the most wonderful and the most terrible things are always done in the name of love. As it is now, so it has always been, and so it always shall be."

"Huh?" the brunette teenager looked completely confused.

Ms. Calendar turned over the fifth and final card. It was Strength. "This is what you'll need. Don't hide behind masks any longer," Jenny said to her companion, a small smile gracing her features as the undercover Romany gathered up all the cards. Jenny then stood up and told Cordelia, "Please tell Rupert that I love him. Always and forever."

Cordelia shrieked as she saw Jenny burst into flames and the entire world suddenly went black, then she found herself back in her bed as she awoke from the dream. She jerked upwards, more than a little freaked. The young woman looked around panting, her heart beating wildly as she strove to calm down. "Oh my God..."

Xander was awake by this point and said urgently, "Cordy, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Slayer dream." She then proceeded to fill him in on everything while it was all fresh in her mind.

Xander frowned, grabbing a pen and paper and making a detailed summary so as to discuss it with Giles later. "Okay. It's nearly two o'clock in the morning, what do you think? We call G-man now, or wait 'til a decent hour?"

Cordelia collapsed backwards onto the mattress. "I think it can wait," she muttered. "You call him first thing in the morning, and tell him I'll come see him during my lunch break tomorrow."

* * *

**The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California**

**Eleven hours later**

"When are you going to help me get rid of all the freaky Slayer crap, anyway? Because it's been nearly two months, Giles, and I can't take much more of this!" Cordelia ranted as she paced around the apartment.

"I, I'm sorry, Cordelia," Giles said apologetically. "But, uh, w-with that new Slayer, Kennedy, well, there's been a number of complications..."

"Such as?" the young woman demanded.

"Well, um, her family is very rich, er, N-new York royalty almost. Her assigned Watcher found it very hard to even make contact with her, and when he did..." Giles trailed off. "Well, let's just say she refused to believe any of it, and he was summarily thrown out of the house and warned not to come near her again. The Council's sent someone else, a-and they're working on convincing her of the truth, but it's not like anyone can just grab the Slayer by the hair and force her to come to California," Rupert finished up.

"I'LL convince her, the little 17-year-old brat," Cordelia said heatedly. "Gimme her number and I'll talk to her myself. Make her get her butt over here, and take back what belongs to her!"

"I don't have her number, unfortunately. And I very much doubt that, that you could say anything to Kennedy over the phone that she hasn't already heard before and dismissed as utter nonsense," Giles told her rather wearily. "Now, um, shall we return to the topic at hand? The dream, I mean."

Miss Chase seemed to completely deflate for a moment. "Fine." Then she went on, "I, uh, I dreamed about Ms. Calendar last night."

Giles repressed a pang of misery at the thought of his lost love. "Go on."

"I think...I think she was a symbol. Something for me to focus on during the information download," Cordelia said thoughtfully. "She said some things...some pretty disturbing things, actually, while she did the Tarot reading."

"What things?" Giles asked at once.

Cordy let her resurrected Solitaire memories guide her thoughts in interpreting the dream. "She said I had to know what to look for. That can be taken two ways; one, that there's something here that we should know about but don't, and two, that something's gone missing and we have to find it. Personally, I'm leaning towards option number one, since this is the Hellmouth and all."

"What else did Jenny say?" Rupert pressed his younger companion.

Cordy frowned. "Something about how I wasn't supposed to be here."

"Not supposed to be here in Sunnydale?" Giles asked in confusion. "Why?"

"I'm not sure, but given what else she said, the other cards I saw..." Cordy took a deep breath. "Uh, Giles...is time travel possible?"

"No," the ex-Watcher said at once. "Not as far as I'm aware, anyway. Why do you ask?"

"Ms. Calendar said something about 'him' going back and changing things," the brunette replied. "I don't know who the heck she was talking about, but she also said..." she broke off. "I mean she picked up the Death card, Giles. And it doesn't necessarily have to mean human death, like I first thought. It, it might also mean the death of one possible future. So, you're SURE that time travel is impossible? Under ANY circumstances?"

Giles opened his mouth to reply, but he visibly hesitated before saying 'no'. Cordy picked up on it at once, "What? What is it?"

"It's nothing-"

"You have 'but' face," Cordelia said at once, and noticing Rupert's look of annoyance she added, "Hey, I just meant that you were about to say 'but', not that your face looks like someone's ass! Now spill, okay?"

The Englishman shook his head. "Many years back I read an account of a mythological crystal that millions of years ago belonged to one of the Old Ones themselves. That pure demon was purportedly capable of travelling through time, you see, a-a-and used it as a navigational aid and booster, as it were. There were even rumors that the crystal had been found somewhere in Europe during the Dark Ages. But as I said, it was all just hearsay and rumour; the artifact was never actually proven to have ever existed. Now, was there anything else from the dream that you can remember?"

( _Crystal?_ ) Cordelia asked herself, remembering what Ms. Calendar had said. ( _No, forget it. Giles is probably right; it's all just a myth._ ) "Uh, Computer Lady also said that basically, I have to be strong. And...that she still loves you," the brunette finished up in embarrassment. She decided not to mention the spontaneous combustion as it was still too gross for her to contemplate, let alone talk about.

Giles took off his glasses and started polishing them. "I see. Um, Jenny didn't happen to say why you needed to gather your strength, I take it?" He avoided the other part of the message like the plague.

"Nope," Miss Chase replied simply. Just then there was a knock on the front door, and the working girl checked her watch. "Damn it! I've gotta go, Giles, my lunch break is almost over. I'll see you later on tonight, okay?"

"Yes of course." Giles let Cordelia out before telling the person who was offering subscriptions to 'The Watchtower' that he wasn't interested.

* * *

**Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California**

**April 21st, 2000**

**9:50 pm**

Riley Finn sat alone in the semi-darkness of his new home, a makeshift camp in the midst of the high school ruins. He was a man without a job or a calling anymore, as he was now considered a traitor by the Initiative.

It had all started when Oz had come back to town, and Riley had learned from Buffy that he was in fact a werewolf. Looking back on it, Finn knew he hadn't dealt well with that little tidbit of news and his girlfriend had been rightfully pissed at his attitude, even calling him a bigot. Later, when Oz had wolfed out upon learning Tara was Willow's girlfriend and then been captured by the Initiative, that was when it had all pretty much exploded in Riley's face.

Oz had been turned into a lab rat by order of the new commanding officer, Colonel McNamara, despite Riley vouching for the guy and stating he was no longer a threat. Annoyed at the scientists' attitude, Finn had decided to smuggle the captive out; but they had gotten caught. Oz had been thrown back into his cage, and Riley was put in the brig to face a court martial for his actions.

Maybe he might have been able to talk his way out of it, it was unlikely but still theoretically possible. But then Xander and Buffy had shown up to stage their own rescue mission and Riley had decided to join them in getting Oz out of there. Finn had initially been very surprised to hear Xander speaking with a British accent, and even more surprised upon learning that Giles had temporarily unleashed the James Bond memories, something Harris had personally requested in order to help his friend.

Then Special Agent Finn had finally realized just how deeply from grace he and his people had fallen, when he heard Xander talking to Colonel McNamara:

"The moment you decided you could torture someone and get away with it just because you had some flimsy legal right to do so, that's the moment you crossed the line, Colonel. I can remember what it's like being tortured myself, you should know. And while I may not be authorised to kill you, here's something that'll make you think twice about ever doing something like that again."

McNamara's screams had echoed throughout the Initiative before Sunnydale's version of Agent 007 had tossed Oz to Buffy. The white hats had eventually made their escape via the Initiative elevator. The good colonel had promised Harris and Finn that they were both dead men just before the foursome had left, despite the pain from his yanked-out tooth and bleeding gum.

"Thought I might find you here."

Riley jumped up off of his sleeping bag to find Forrest Gates pointing his blaster directly at his heart. "Forrest-"

"Don't say it," the black man cut him off. "I swear, it's taking everything I've got not to just shoot you and drag you back by the heels. Now where's the HST?"

"HST? Who are you talking about, Oz?" Riley asked. "You know who he is, Forrest, he used to be a student-"

"That was before he became a monster, damn it!" Gates tried not to shout. "What's the hell's the matter with you, Rye? That bitch got you so messed up you can't even tell the difference anymore?"

"You talk about Buffy that way again, and one of us definitely isn't gonna leave here alive," Riley said with a flinty look, and Forrest almost took a step back at his tone. "As for Oz, he left town the very same night he escaped from the base, and good luck to him. Funny thing, though: Oz isn't a vampire or a demon, he's a legitimate U.S. citizen who got tortured by his own government. And if the press should get wind of what happened-"

"SHUT UP, DAMN IT! Stop trying to make us look like the bad guys here!" Gates yelled, stressed and angry.

"Then tell me, what else have we become, if not bad guys? Our first C.O. created a homicidal monster and treated us like a bunch of toy soldiers. The latest one refuses to even use the word 'mercy' in his vocabulary. Xander was right all along, the lack of oversight was a huge mistake," Riley said, shaking his head.

"Turn around, and put your hands behind your head," Gates growled, trying not to think about what he had seen Xander say and do that night. It had severely challenged all his preconceptions about magic and witchcraft, and the soldier's ability to live in denial had started to disintegrate. "After I cuff you, we are going back to the Initiative and you are going to spend the next sixty years in a military prison."

"You're not actually serious, are you? You were there the other night, Forrest. You heard McNamara tell me I was a dead man for trying to do the right thing, what Dr. Walsh supposedly recruited us for," Riley said scornfully. "I go with you, and within 48 hours they'll find me having hanged myself in my cell or whatever. And you can't tell me that I'm just being paranoid." He paused, and looked his former lieutenant right in the eye.

"You've met my parents, man. They know that you, me and Graham are serving here together. They'll look for you after the funeral, and they'll ask a lot of questions. We both know Graham won't cover for you on this one, not after it all goes down the way I expect it will. So how exactly are you going to justify your actions to my mom and dad, knowing beforehand what was going to happen to me?"

The blaster shook in the Initiative agent's hands as Forrest tried to curb his feelings of rage and frustration, not to mention his reluctant agreement with Riley's assessment of the situation. ( _How in the goddamn hell did things ever become this fucked up-_ )

As famous last words went, they were somewhat fitting for someone in Forrest's situation as hands grabbed him from behind and a pair of fangs descended into his neck.

"NO!" Riley yelled, as Harmony began to feed. Scrabbling madly, the fugitive found a cross that Cordelia had recently left him – and that was why Harmony was here right now, she had tailed her former best friend to their former high school – and Finn used it to make the female vampire back off.

"OW!" the undead blonde complained as Forrest staggered off to the side. "Hey, get that thing away from me. Geez, rude much?"

"You okay?" Riley asked Forrest, his eyes never leaving the vampiress in front of him.

"Yeah, just – just gimme a minute, man..." Gates was woozy from the blood loss.

"We may not have one, vampires usually travel in packs. So wake up and focus," the former Alpha team leader said sharply, as Forrest struggled to comply. "Who else is with you on the hunt tonight?" Riley then demanded of Harmony.

"No one. God, but you're annoying," Harmony said as she backed away. "And FYI, your friend tasted so lousy I bet he'll give me food poisoning or something. So what are you guys doing here, anyhow? Who the hell would want to live in this dump...well, who wasn't a total retard anyway?"

Harmony finally noticed Gates was starting to aim his blaster at her, and with an unusual burst of intellectual prowess the blonde ditz understood that hanging around here for much longer probably wasn't the wisest move. She vanished from sight, leaving Riley and Forrest to stare at one another.

"One minute head start, that's the best I can do," Forrest muttered, torn between duty and friendship. He couldn't look at his former commander as he said that. The dizziness was starting to wear off, and the African-American was afraid he wouldn't be able to go through with the offer if he couldn't even justify it to himself and the new boss after he got back to the base.

Riley didn't hesitate. He grabbed one or two essentials and bolted.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**April 22nd, 2000**

**8:10 am**

Xander had a headache and tried to tune out the depressingly regular argument taking place between Cordelia and Buffy. Miss Summers had come over to discuss the situation now that she and Harris were at the top of the Initiative's shit list, but some choice comments from Miss Chase had turned the discussion into an all-too-familiar barrage of insults.

Xander rubbed his forehead. Ever since the night Giles had released the James Bond personal memories and afterwards suppressed them again, Harris had felt a bit out of sorts. As a wise man once said, if you cage the beast for long enough it gets angry, or as the late Maggie Walsh would have put it, Xander could feel his id battling with his ego and superego for control.

"Okay, time out. Judge Xander requesting a recess here," the young man interrupted before the argument between the two girls degenerated into a full-blown wrestling match worthy of pay-per-view. "I just want to say something before all the hostilities resume, okay?"

"What?" both women said in unison, before glaring at one another.

Xander said slowly, rubbing his forehead again, "Buffy, Cordy, you two actually have a lot in common-"

"Do not!" Summers and Chase said again in unison.

"You both used to be cheerleaders. You both get the Slayer dreams. And from what I remember, Buff, you once freely admitted that you were the Cordelia Chase of Hemery High," Xander said as Cordy looked annoyed and Buffy looked embarrassed by the comparison. "Look, I'm not asking you to be best friends, but please, for me. Can't you both just get along, or at least be civil to one another?"

Both females looked ready to tear him a new one, but luckily Xander was saved by the bell. The telephone rang and he went to answer it. "Hello? Hey, Will. What? What's he doing there? Oh, I see. Yeah, what the hell, we'll be over there soon. I'll try to think of some other place he can stay. Bye." He hung up and said to Buffy, "That was Willow. Riley's at Giles's place. Apparently the Initiative found him at the high school, and he had to run for it. It was the only safe place he could get to, so now we gotta stash him somewhere else."

"Great," Buffy muttered, worried about her boyfriend and heading for the door as Xander grabbed his coat and Cordelia her purse. "What else could go wrong today?"

After the past four years, the blonde Slayer really should have known better than to say that on the Hellmouth.

* * *

**UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California**

**The same time**

Not far away from Lowell House, Ethan Rayne checked his watch. It was time.

The warlock had recently arrived back in Sunnydale, after making a pit stop in Los Angeles and making the find of a lifetime in the Metropolitan Museum. Guided by a picture he'd seen in the newspaper, Ethan had found something that he'd previously been sure had been complete and utter poppycock. So after acquiring his new prize, Rayne had done a great deal of research for the next few weeks before returning to the Hellmouth.

The British man had subsequently bargained for the acquisition of certain 'assets' of a scumbag magic dealer named Rack. A number of customers-slash-magic addicts had been disguised with glamours to look like demons after Rack had mystically tagged them for Rayne and, like the Trojan horse of old, the Initiative had taken those people in and locked them up in their containment facility.

After the standard ritual of anointing himself with blood, Ethan chanted in Latin, "Beatum sit in nomine Janus. Patris lux et nostrae, evoco vestram animam. Nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Fiat voluntas tua!" ( **Blessed be the name of Janus. Our father of light and darkness, I invoke thy spirit. Show to us that which is infinite power. Thy will be done! **)

Elsewhere, the dark magicks began to build up within the disguised prisoners, rising to such levels that the false demons became the supernatural equivalent of suicide bombers. Their bodies exploded with such force that entire cellblocks were simply vaporised. Over ninety percent of the Initiative personnel were killed or wounded as the mystical blasts engulfed the entire base.

It was a slaughter, just as Ethan had intended.

The underground facility as a whole wasn't utterly demolished, but it came pretty darn close. There was no sign of the carnage above ground apart from a brief rumble that everyone quickly dismissed as a minor earthquake typical of southern California. But down below, there were scattered bodies and body parts everywhere, human and demon alike.

Ethan smirked, cleaned himself up and left the building, heading for the physical location of the Hellmouth itself. He had his reasons for going there. Now that revenge was no longer an issue his personal desires were once again the driving force for his actions. Once he got to the remains of Sunnydale High, Ethan started looking for the hole those Vahrall demons had attempted to sacrifice themselves in a few months ago. But suddenly, the chaos worshipper got a unexpected surprise. Namely, Spike and Harmony.

"Well, well, look who we've got 'ere, Harm. Guess you were right about this place becomin' a popular tourist spot 'n all," William the Bloody drawled. His newly reappointed lover had told him about her encounter with Riley and Forrest here last night after reporting in to Adam. Curious, Spike had decided to stake out the ruins, in case something advantageous would come his way.

"Ah, hello. What can I do for..." Ethan saw two game faces appear right in front of him. "...you?"

"Unless you wanna end up drained like a milkshake, mate, you'll tell us what you're bloody well up to here fer starters," Spike said with a smirk. The chip may have prevented him from being any direct threat to the human, but he had an accomplice right there beside him to take care of that part of it.

Ethan hesitated to comply, but eventually spilled the beans after some not-so-friendly 'persuasion'. The vamps learned how Rayne had obtained the pseudo-mythological crystal that was, indeed, the fabled Old One time-travel device, an artifact that had once been owned by the medieval wizard Myrrdin. That was his name in his true native Welsh, even if he was more popularly known as Merlin.

Ethan explained how, despite popular opinion, the crystal was quite real. For centuries it had been buried in the archives of the British Museum and had recently been loaned to an LA museum as a mere bauble for display. Ethan's plan had been to travel back to sixth century Wales by performing an almost-forgotten ritual which needed to be done right next to a dimensional rift like the Hellmouth. He would then return the crystal to Merlin in exchange for his elixir of eternal youth.

"Slight change in plan, mate," Spike grinned ferociously. "You're gonna drop me off just before November 10th, 1999 instead. Otherwise, I'll feed you your own eyeballs."

"Spiiiiike!" Harmony cried. "You promised to let me do all the maiming! I mean, what with that Initiative chip in your head, you can't even-"

"Shut it, Harm!" Spike growled. The platinum-blond vampire wanted to kill the stupid bint for her idiocy in almost revealing his current state of impotence, but unfortunately he still needed her to keep the prisoner in line. ( _Once I prevent meself from getting taken prisoner that night though, first thing on the agenda is to finally get rid of the dumb chit once and fer all. But first thing's first. I gotta convince this ponce that I'm serious._ ) "So what'll it be, ya pillock? Guts in or out?"

Ethan stared at the English vampire curiously for a moment. He suspected that Spike was bluffing about personally causing him harm, given what the other vampire had just blurted out, but it didn't really matter. His course of action was already decided. "There's no need for threats, Mr. Spike. I'm sure I can oblige you your request, in return for a little assistance with the legwork. What do you say?"

The clock started counting down towards temporal chaos – and maybe even the end of history as everyone knew it.

* * *

**Just outside the remains of Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California  
**

**A short while later**

The news about the Initiative's destruction had spread like wildfire along the demon information highway. Many people – humans and demons alike – were wondering who had done it and how. The 'why' part wasn't gone into much, unsurprisingly enough. Some folks thought it had been done for revenge, while others believed it to have been carried out in order to teach the U.S. government a lesson about messing with the wrong demon clan. Whatever the reason, Anya and her new partner Jonathan had sold the news to the Scooby gang at a discount price.

They had also included the less interesting news that someone with a British accent, calling himself Ethan, had been seen at Rack's lair recently, and had last been seen heading in the direction of the high school ruins.

Just like the vampires Spike and Harmony Kendall.

Giles had led the charge towards the former Sunnydale High, his younger friends right behind him. Even Riley had come along, as there was strength in numbers and what was left of the Initiative now had more important issues to deal with than hunting down one of its missing former members.

Rupert wasn't sure what they would find when they got to the Hellmouth. He was willing to bet though that whatever it was, he wouldn't like it. "Ethan, what are you up to?" Giles muttered to himself, already suspecting the truth.

From the look on Riley's face, he had also come to the same conclusion and the former Initiative agent looked ready to tear Rayne apart with his bare hands. The white hats all ran into the one-time library...

...just in time to see Ethan finish his spell, using the crystal as a focus for the magicks.

In the air, an oval field of light appeared. The rim wavered, but the center was stable enough. The portal started glowing white as it fully stabilised, and the crystal in Ethan's hand began rippling with many different colours.

"What is that?" Cordelia asked, staring at the white ovoid.

"That, my dear, is the true face of eternity, if I may be permitted poetic license," Ethan replied with a big smile. "A portal that's my own little gateway into the past. You like it?"

"Good Lord," Giles breathed, staring at the crystal Ethan was holding and guessing correctly. ( _It, it was real all along, and he bloody well found it? Oh, God help us..._ )

"You're responsible for what happened in the Initiative, aren't you? You're the one who somehow set off all those bombs and killed nearly all my men," Riley said to Ethan in an icy voice.

"Oh, dear, I'd best watch out. The rube's beginning to catch up," Rayne smirked in a very offensive way.

"I am going to kill you for that," Finn said simply, staring at his enemy with a frightening intensity as he drew his gun and aimed at the chaos worshipper.

"Riley..." Buffy said worriedly as she grabbed his arm. She couldn't help it as Slayers came wired to kill vamps and demons, not people. Faith's example was something never too far from her thoughts and Miss Summers couldn't just simply stand there and watch her boyfriend callously kill a human being like that.

"Why?" Willow asked Ethan, distracting him as the former commando suddenly also felt Tara's presence at his side. "Why'd you do it?"

"You really are that naïve, aren't you?" Ethan said cuttingly, before the smile reappeared. "Never mind. Time will no doubt cure you of that condition, eventually. But mark my words: those soldiers will come back to this town in force and most likely put anyone like you in exactly the same place they put me. You and your lovely friend over there," the Englishman sent a quick smirk to Miss Maclay, sensing her power as well as the redhead's.

Tara looked sick, reminded of things she'd much prefer to forget; her immediate family chief among them. She refused to look in Ethan's direction again.

"What have you done, Ethan?" Giles said in a very dangerous tone.

"You mean recently? Well, I've taken part in this amusing little crusade of yours against the vampires, old man." Rayne gestured off to one side of the room, where a telltale pile of dust was gathered. The Scoobies didn't know it, but Ethan had hit Harmony directly in the face with a ball of sunshine spell, precisely when she hadn't been expecting it. Curiously, Spike had known the jig was up and scampered off before the mage could do the same thing to him.

Ethan then said, "That and procuring my escape route out of this minor spot of bother. Don't suppose you'd care to come along? Believe it or not I'm offering you the world here, Ripper."

"The world is not enough, Ethan..." Giles said, inadvertently quoting from the James Bond movie. He glanced at Xander, who so far hadn't said a word yet.

"Ah, too bad."

"NO!!!" Xander leaped forward, having a premonition of disaster despite the gun and all the crossbows being levelled at the British magician.

Too late. Ethan incanted an obscurity spell as he dodged the bullet Riley sent his way, and he became very hard to see in the minds of all the others. Willow and Tara started to do a counter-spell, but Ethan used that time to quickly disappear through the temporal gateway.

Without thinking Xander raced to follow him, despite Cordelia's screams of protest. But he was instantly repelled at the interface, blasted backwards. The young man soared through the air and landed very painfully on his back.

Riley had run to the time gate as well, right behind his friend. To his great surprise, Finn wasn't rejected like Xander had been when he was able to stick his arm through into the depths of the white ovoid.

"Riley, no – no!" Buffy yelled, instantly knowing what her boyfriend would do. She started running forward herself, "RILEY! DON'T!!!!"

Despite her pleas, without hesitation Riley Finn vanished into the past, relentlessly chasing after his quarry.

Two seconds later, before the Slayer could reach her boyfriend, the portal simply winked out of existence.

"RILEY!!!!" Buffy screamed at the top of her lungs. "NO!!! NO!!! RILEY!!!"

To Be Concluded...


	8. Out Of Time

See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks to EVERYONE who's reviewed and sent feedback, you rule. That being said, folks, that's it; this one's done. Onto new ideas and fanfics. But in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the final chapter of ASTOF. And please hit that big shiny review button at the bottom of the screen after you've read it, okay? Pretty please with sugar on top, even. Right, now off we go...

* * *

**Part Eight: Out Of Time**

**Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California**

**April 23rd, 2000**

**12:01 am**

"Well, don't just stand there, Giles! DO SOMETHING!"

The Englishman simply stood there gaping at his former charge. The 19-year-old blonde girl was very upset after just having seen her boyfriend vanish into the past, Giles knew that. But trying to deal with her hysterics, while worrying that everything would suddenly disintegrate into utter chaos from any significant alterations to history, was a bit much even for him.

( _Looks like we're all still here, at least for now_. ) "Er, do something like what, Buffy?" Rupert finally asked, relieved that the world hadn't completely imploded.

"I don't know, you're the Watcher around here! Just...do something, anything, to bring Riley back!" Miss Summers shouted.

"Ughhhh..." Xander moaned as Cordelia helped him up. He was still somewhat befuddled and confused after being thrown halfway across the bombed-out former library. "What the hell happened?"

"You got exactly what you deserved for being so stupid," his girlfriend growled at him, as she whacked him just above the ear. Cordy ignored Xander's yelp of pain and said, "Just what the hell were you thinking, you idiot? We could have lost you instead of Buffy's boyfriend just now!"

"Well, I couldn't just let Ethan..." Harris trailed off. "Wait up, run that by me again?"

"R-riley went through the portal before it, it disappeared," Tara filled him in as Xander's eyes went wide.

"And I betcha he's taken care of Ethan by now. So, so, we gotta get him back!" Willow added with a great deal of determination. "Giles, where do we start?"

"How the bloody hell should I know?" Giles asked peevishly, acting out of character because he was totally out of his depth, a very rare thing indeed. "Even if I knew anything about the secrets of time travel – and five minutes ago, I-I-I would have called anyone who said that such a thing was even remotely possible a complete and utter fool – we have no idea where or when Ethan and Riley have ended up. Tell you what – I'll take time, you lot take space. W-we should have the answer in a jiffy!"

"GILES!" Buffy shouted, very upset. "Knock it off. Rant mode, not helping!"

"It was the crystal, wasn't it?" Cordelia spoke up, as all eyes focused on her. "The one that Ms. Calendar mentioned in my Slayer dream a few days ago, the one Giles said was just a myth. That's how it was done, right?"

"M-most likely, yes," Giles nodded, calming down. As soon as he saw the questioning looks, he briefly summarized for the rest of the gang what he had told Cordelia the other day. "So if we want to undo this, I-I'd say first and foremost we need to get our hands on that creation of the Old Ones."

"How do we do that?" asked Tara. But no one said anything in reply, tellingly enough.

"Um, guys? Are you sure we should even be trying to change this?" Xander raised his hand tentatively. "'Cause I'm not sure if we should-"

"Yeah, right. Like you'd be saying that if it was Cordelia who was missing?" Buffy interrupted, glaring at her friend.

"No, Buff, that's not what I meant; Riley was my friend too, and I want him back as much as any of us. I'm just wonderin' if we'll totally screw everything up if we do that, though, what with this being the usual end of the world type deal. 'Cause the way I understand it, history is never really altered, y'know? In the end, it all just sorta fits together like a jigsaw. Maybe what happened a few minutes ago was...inevitable," Xander told her.

Willow immediately said, "Come on, Xander, I don't buy that. There's no fate but that which we make for ourselves, remember?" she quoted from the John Connor speech almost verbatim.

Tara was quick to agree with her lover. "I-if we go by every time travel movie I've ever seen, th-then that means changing the future is possible."

Xander shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think you people are taking into account something very important here."

"Like what?"

"Fate, Cor. Predestination. I mean, why else was Riley able to go through that thing and I wasn't?" Xander let that one sink in and added, "I think him and Ethan had to go back into the past today, 'cause from a certain point of view, they'd already done it...but for some reason I was never part of the team, and so history protected itself that way when I tried to go through too."

Everyone looked at Xander strangely, not having expected to hear such a cogently rational theory from him. Well, apart from Tara, who had never known the high school clown version of Xander Harris; all she knew was the guy who had once been possessed by James Bond and had moved on from that experience, and her preconceptions weren't colored by a history she had never been part of.

"No, no, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, what's so special about you?" Buffy asked angrily, before she realized how that sounded and immediately apologized, "Sorry, Xander. I just meant, why would Fate or Destiny or whatever go to all that effort to keep you in the here and now?"

"I don't know," Xander said once more with feeling. "I really don't."

And then, as if to relieve the tension, a group of grief-filled Initiative survivors stumbled onto the Scooby gang, and started shooting up the neighborhood with their blaster weapons.

* * *

**The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California**

**May 27th, 2000**

**8:30 am**

Giles was pretty much just puttering around the house after fixing himself some breakfast; he was feeling more than a little tired right now. Things hadn't exactly been boring the past month or so.

It had all started that night when the Initiative soldiers had shown up at exactly the wrong moment. They had pissed off the Slayer so much with their cowboy tactics that she'd let go of all her inhibitions and started pounding on the squad members. Luckily, the Chosen One hadn't killed any of them, but the soldiers' battered and broken bodies had later proven to be a testament to Buffy's fury over losing her boyfriend in such a sudden and unexpected way.

The truth was, Miss Summers had certainly become a complete emotional wreck afterwards. So the gang had left her to Joyce's tender loving care, and later on Giles had let Xander explain the 'misunderstanding' to Graham Miller, who had suddenly found himself in charge of the pitiful remnants of the Initiative. Since both Forrest and Colonel McNamara had been killed during the destruction of the facility, and Riley was persona non gratis in addition to being lost in the past, Graham turned out to be the most senior officer available.

Miller hadn't been able to fully believe what he'd been told, of course, especially the part about time travel by his former comrade. He just passed the news up the food chain about Ethan Rayne confessing to being the one responsible for the massacre before he'd vanished. No doubt a lot of people were now searching fruitlessly for that Englishman throughout the country, but Rupert didn't care about that. He had other things with which to concern himself.

He, Willow and Tara hadn't been able to find any trace of the ancient crystal Ethan had used to open up his portal all those weeks ago. That wasn't surprising, given how Rayne had taken it with him that night. But still, in desperate times hope springs eternal. The two witches had, over the course of the last month or so, also started researching any and all magicks related to temporal mechanics. Slowing time down or speeding it up, for example. They'd found a few interesting spells but nothing to go backwards down the river of years as Ethan and Riley had done.

However lousy Giles felt for the daughter of his heart, the lack of success actually let him sleep a lot better at nights. It wasn't that he didn't want Riley to return as much as the others did, of course, but playing around with the universe was not something to be taken lightly. One of the few advantages of growing old was learning one's limits, and understanding that some lines should never be crossed no matter how good your intentions were.

The doorbell rang and Giles slowly got up to answer it.

"Well, it's about time! What if we'd been the prize patrol?" Cordelia demanded, as she came in through the front door of the condo without waiting for an invitation.

"I'm sorry, the what?" Giles asked in confusion as Xander came in as well. "Prize patrol?"

"Don't ask," Xander told him simply. "She's been in a bad mood today ever since the moment we woke up."

"I heard that," his girlfriend growled. "And you just earned yourself another twenty-four hours in the doghouse, mister!"

"Dinner at that French restaurant we went to a few weeks ago?" Harris asked hopefully.

Miss Chase appeared to consider it carefully, and then she nodded, accepting the bribe. "But this time, I'M choosing the wine!"

"Was, uh, was there a reason why you two came over here so early in the morning, or-or is this just your idea of a social call?" Giles asked with a new look of confusion.

"Oh yeah, sure, THIS is what I like to do on my Saturdays. Hang out here with you," Cordy commented acidly. "How's that fugue state coming along there, Giles?"

"Just dropped by on our way to the deli to tell you that Buffy's...better," Xander said diplomatically. "Cordy and I went over to visit her and her mom last night and there was a chick flick vid-fest. Believe me, after less than half an hour I was real tempted to throw myself at Adam's mercy, just to make the suffering end."

"Ha, ha," Cordelia scoffed, giving him an absent-minded whack on the arm. She was glad though that her boyfriend hadn't mentioned the fight between Buffy and herself last night, because it was embarrassing to think how Joyce had decided to do something about all the fighting.

"This has got to stop," Mrs. Summers had said, after Xander had fled to the bathroom. "As a matter of fact this, this bickering which you two get up to, it's now officially over. It makes me ashamed to learn that you two think this is acceptable behaviour of any sort!"

"But mom-!" Buffy had whined.

"I mean it, Buffy! You too, Cordelia!" Joyce had said firmly to the female teens. She'd then gone on to say that by forcing Xander to choose between them, both girls would eventually lose him one way or another. The middle-aged mom understood how he loved them both, albeit in different ways, and it wasn't fair to Xander the way the female pair been acting for nearly a year. So they had to grow up and stop acting so petty, for heaven's sake.

Cordelia knew she and Buffy would never be friends, not really, but Mrs. Summers' actions had put things in perspective and finally drained nearly all the hostility from both parties. Which was a miracle in and of itself.

"Right. So, was that all?" Giles asked wearily, bringing Cordelia back to the here and now.

"Also wanted to ask, have you seen any sign of Jonathan and Anya lately? I haven't been able to get in touch with either of 'em," Xander said.

"Oh, them. They've, uh, they've left Sunnydale, apparently," Giles remarked absent-mindedly.

"What?" Cordelia demanded. "Why?"

"Jonathan was accosted by, um, by a M'Fashnik demon, I believe it was. The creature broke his left arm for some reason. Given the species, i-it was probably hired muscle for someone or something that the young man had annoyed somehow," Giles explained. "In the hospital, Anya was so distraught that she decided they should move to Utah and retire from the information brokerage business. So, uh, as soon as she could after Jonathan was discharged, Miss Jenkins made all the arrangements. She, she left some contact details with me in case of the untimely end of the world, but nothing more."

Xander looked surprised, but Cordelia just looked pleased that the potential rival for her beloved's affections had willingly removed herself from the board. ( _Note to self: remember to send that girl a fruit basket or a house-warming gift or something._ )

Then Miss Chase tensed up, somehow knowing that something had changed. She swivelled around, "Someone's at the door-"

And right on cue the doorbell rang. Giles carefully answered it, "Hello?"

"Rupert Giles?" a female voice with a British accent answered.

"Yes?"

"I need to talk to you. Please open the door."

"Who is this?" Rupert demanded. "Kindly identify yourself-"

"Just open the damn door before I kick it down, you limey idiot!" That was a younger, different female voice.

"Kennedy!" the previous voice sounded scandalized. "Manners, please!"

Giles shared a look with Xander and Cordelia before opening up. "Well, it's about time!" the newest Slayer said in an uncanny imitation of Cordelia just a few short minutes ago.

"You," Cordelia said scathingly, as the brunette Chosen One and her Watcher came in. "You're that new Slayer, aren't you? So you finally got here!"

"Who the hell are you?"

"If I may interrupt for just a moment," the British woman with glasses said calmly and soothingly. "I believe introductions are in order. Mr. Giles, I'm Lydia Hyde-Fitzpatrick, and this is my Slayer, Kennedy."

"Ah, of course. Well, you know who I am, and this is Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase," Giles introduced his younger friends.

"Really? Then this is perfect," Lydia beamed. "She's just the person I was hoping to find."

"Why?" Cordelia asked bluntly.

"Lydia says you've got something that belongs to me, and so we're here to get it," Kennedy said shortly. The lesbian girl had been edgy for quite a while, ever since her new 'tutor' had managed to convince her of the truth when a vampire had gotten itself invited into the mansion and had been about to feast on her entire family.

The female Watcher explained the plan after Willow and Tara were summoned. Lydia had been studying the problem ever since she'd been assigned to her new charge and had eventually come to the conclusion that what was needed was a enjoining spell; the same kind of spell that could have turned Buffy into an über-Slayer, in order to defeat Adam.

The two witches got to work, and then Willow incanted the spell. Cordelia and Kennedy were instantly caught in a mystical trance, their eyes briefly glowing orange before they snapped out of it.

"YOU!!" Kennedy turned around and roared hatefully at Xander. "YOU UNFAITHFUL BASTARD! How dare you hurt Cordelia that way? And with WILLOW of all people?!"

"What?" poor old Xander looked surprised and dismayed. So did many other people in the room.

"Whoa, that was a major rush," Cordelia shook her head. Then she looked at her boyfriend, "Ignore her. It worked, the Slayer thing is gone now; I can feel it. But the spell also combined both our memories. She knows what I know, and I know what she knows." The Chase girl then looked at the redhead, "You didn't think that that was something worth mentioning before now?"

"I, I don't get it. That shouldn't have happened," Willow shared a look with Tara, who just shrugged.

"Sure, but it did anyway. And by the way, thanks for the unwanted extra of Solitaire's memories," Kennedy said bitingly to Cordelia, trying to bury anything that wasn't her own personal memory. "Like I wasn't confused enough by everything before?"

"Time to grow up, you little brat," Cordelia snapped.

"Please, that's enough. Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Giles, but if my Slayer's feeling alright I think we'd best be off," Lydia put in.

"What? You're, you're leaving already?" Giles looked surprised. "But you haven't even met Buffy yet..."

"No offense to your Slayer, but all things considered, I think it's best if Kennedy doesn't fraternize with her. Not if what happened with Miss Lehane is anything to go by," Lydia replied sharply. "The current situation in Cleveland with the Hellmouth there demands our presence, and so in my opinion, we need to depart as soon as possible to deal with it."

Thus, less than two hours after they'd arrived in town, both the new Slayer and the new Watcher left Sunnydale, never to return.

* * *

**Adam's lair, Sunnydale, California**

**The next day**

The cyber-demonoid was sitting at a computer set-up within his private chambers in the sewers. Adam was currently hooked into the Internet, accumulating background information as he continually modified his master plan, the same plan that had been seriously disrupted after Ethan had destroyed the Initiative.

Adam had learned Harmony had been dusted when he'd talked to Spike, before the peroxide-blonde vampire had chosen to depart from Sunnydale. That explained why she hadn't informed him of the situation with the Initiative, and why there was no point in Adam trying to find her to rip Harmony's head off for inefficiency.

( _Almost nothing is within parameters any longer,_ ) Adam thought to himself emotionlessly. ( _With the 314 facility destroyed, my brother vanished and the one responsible for my setbacks now beyond reach in the past, the situation can no longer be classified as 'interesting'. How did I ever miscalculate so badly on such a minor variable?_ )

"Well, who have we got here? It's Adam; or as we like to call him, Mr. Demon Bits. You know, as supervillain lairs go, I think this place could use some work. Few rugs, some throw pillows, couple of scantily-clad hot-looking bimbos...I mean, you gotta go with the classics, if you want people to take you seriously about becoming the Big Bad around here!"

Adam turned around without hurrying and said to Xander, "I wasn't expecting you to show up. The Slayer, perhaps, but not her flunky."

Harris just gave him a mock salute. "Not exactly a flunky anymore, big guy. But I guess I can see how you would think that, given how basically you're just a mistake. The flawed creation of a flawed woman with a majorly huge superiority complex. By the way I like the new eye, how it's all glow-y like that. Who'd you have to kill in order to get it?"

Adam just stared at him, having become annoyed. "You are irrelevant. Either leave or I will kill you."

"I'm irrelevant?" Xander looked indignant. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to, pal? I'm the guy who's been possessed three times in his life. I'm the one who twinned the Slayer line, twice. And I'm also the man who's gonna make sure that your ass finally gets kicked into a brand new shape!"

No matter what else you could say about him Xander Harris had the ability to get under anyone's skin, good guy or bad, and annoy them to the point of abandoning everything in order to deal with him. Adam disconnected his computer links and got up from his seat, removing a disk from its drive on his left pectoral before chasing after the aggravating pest in order to eliminate it.

The cyber-demonoid really should have learned his lesson from his previous plans falling apart a month ago. As Adam lumbered through the sewers chasing after Xander, not far away Willow and Tara began to do a magic spell. Miss Rosenberg set a piece of paper on fire, and placed into a bowl in the middle of a red triangle on the floor. She chanted in Latin, "Opus orbit est, tempus ad calcem intendit." ( **The work is a circle, the time stretches out. **)

Tara threw in some herbs, and smoke began rising from the bowl. Just then, not far away, Xander threw himself to the floor and Adam suddenly found Buffy's fist slamming into his face.

The force of the Slayer-strength blow made him stumble to the side...directly over and into a red triangle similar to the one Willow and Tara were using, only much larger.

For the first time EVER, Adam started to panic as he suddenly found himself stuck in a time loop.

Trapped within a mystical energy field, Adam was unable to stop the witch-y pair as the two women began to put to use the esoteric knowledge they'd gleaned in trying to come up with a way to rescue Riley from his fate. Time began to pass much, much faster for the cyber-demonoid than for all the humans standing around staring at him.

Colloquially known as the Sphere of the Infinite Agonies, the spell was such that for every second that passed on the outside, the equivalent of a human lifetime passed for the prisoner. The cyborg couldn't feel the pain that an ordinary victim would, thanks to what he was, but Adam knew that he wasn't immortal and after the equivalent of about a week had passed, he also knew that he had to escape before his power source ran out.

But there was no escape.

Xander had planned too well for that after he'd come up with the idea yesterday and everyone had added in their input on how to take down the big scary monster.

"No! No! NO!!!" Adam was seen to yell, even though his voice couldn't penetrate through the temporal barrier. His demon fists continually slammed against the energy cage, but they accomplished nothing but indicate his complete and utter impotence to change his situation.

Adam's body flickered now and then, as the cyber-demonoid tried everything he could think of to escape his confinement. But all to no avail. And in the end, after about an hour or nearly half a million years, it was all over.

Jonathan had once said that Adam's U-235 power source would last 'just this side of forever'. Which was true enough, but thanks to the peculiar mangling of time in this instance, forever had become quite a lot shorter than expected and Adam collapsed, his power source exhausted.

Just in case he was playing possum the Scoobies kept the spell going; but a second (or a human lifetime) later, the human parts had turned into a skeleton, the demon parts had turned into goo and the metals had started to rust and corrode.

"Well! I'm glad that's finally over," Cordelia said simply, as Xander moved to stand at her side and Willow terminated the spell.

"Kinda anti-climatic," was Buffy's response, as she finally started to put Riley's loss behind her.

"Not as exciting as blowing up the school, anyway," Willow nodded.

"Eh, I don't know about that. But as potential apocalypses go, yeah, this was kinda yawn-worthy," Xander expressed his opinion.

"You lot a-a-are getting far too blasé and jaded about the end of the world, you should know," Giles said warningly, sounding like a stuffy father.

"Does anyone want pizza? I, I could do with a slice," Tara said hesitantly. "I'm kinda hungry."

"Sound like a plan to me," Xander nodded. "We finally got rid of Adam. So I say, let's party!"

* * *

**The Monastery of the Order of Dagon, Czech Republic, Europe**

**August 23rd, 2000**

**6:00 am**

Two monks raced down the corridor of their home, panicked, throwing terrified glances behind them. They clutched various items in their arms as they ran: books, candles, incense. One of the monks stumbled, dropping a censer of incense. His companion helped him up, and they continued their flight down the candle-lit hallway.

"It's coming. It's going to kill us!" the clumsy monk babbled in Czech.

"Our lives aren't important," his brother reminded him in the same language. "We have to protect the Key. Come, come!"

The two men continued racing down the corridor, only to encounter Faith at the end of it standing in front of a massive set of doors. "What's the sitch?" she said urgently.

"It comes," said one of the monks in halting English. "You must, delay. Need time to send Key to guardian."

"Yeah. I'll do my best," the brunette Slayer muttered, cursing the fact that she had ever ended up coming here.

Months ago after departing Sunnydale, Faith had arrived in Los Angeles; where she had been found by a woman named Althenea, the first amongst equals within a coven based in Devon, England. The middle-aged female seer had transported Faith and herself across the pond in the blink of an eye, and explained the situation to the raven-haired Chosen One; that a vision had shown the coven that she would be needed to help save the world in about six months time from an insane hellgod.

Glorificus, or Glory as she preferred to be called, was a threat unlike anything anyone had ever faced before. It had been foreseen by the coven members that the crazy hell-deity would be going after the living energy known as the Key and, upon acquiring it, then cause the destruction of the world. So the group of women needed a Champion to prevent all that, and Faith had fit the role quite nicely.

Upon regaining her edge after eight months atrophying in that damned coma, Miss Lehane had arrived here and spoken to the monks about what she had been told. Unfortunately the holy men had refused to heed her warnings, until it was far too late.

As Glory and Faith suddenly spied one another, the two monks secured the door leading into a sacred chamber. The male duo then ran to the center of the huge room and joined a third, more senior member of their order. They knelt on the floor before the abbot, who had lit candles and magic talismans all around him.

"Help me perform the ritual," the abbot said in Czech.

"Are we to send the Key to the other Slayer, as planned?" one of the newcomers asked in the same tongue.

The abbot shook his head. "We were fools not to listen to the Chosen One's warnings before now. No, we will send the Key to the one who she considers to be the most suitable protector, as we should have done from the start."

All three monks extended their arms and began chanting. As they spoke the ancient words, a tremendous crash echoed through the monastery and the massive wooden door trembled in its frame from the battle between Faith and her opponent.

As the junior monks glanced fearfully at the door, the abbot admonished them, "Concentrate. Concentrate!"

The ritual resumed and a breeze sprung up out of nowhere inside the chamber. A relentless pounding on the door started to take place, as the crossbeam blocking entry started to splinter apart.

Suddenly, a bright flash of green light leaped up from the center of the monks' circle and disappeared. A moment later, the door finally gave way and shattered completely, forcefully blasted into the room in little pieces.

But it was too late, as what looked like a beautiful blonde woman stormed into the chamber and glanced around in pure fury. The spell was done and it had rewritten history, just as the monks had intended. The Key was safely hidden and integrated into the timeline.

And four months back in the past, the monks' spell also acted to stop Xander from going through Ethan's time gate, blasting him backwards across the room and preventing the end of the world due to temporal paradox.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**August 26th, 2000**

**9:00 am**

"Okay, Xander, what's this all about? Your phone call was like pretty vague," Buffy said, as she, Willow, Tara and Giles came into the apartment. "Is it something to do with the Initiative?"

"No. Like I said before, now that they've verified that Adam's remains are the real deal, they're vacating the premises. Graham and one or two others will be sticking around to keep an eye on things, but they've officially handed over guardianship of the Hellmouth to you now that the brass has decided that their little experiment has failed," Xander replied, then he sighed. "This is about something else."

"Okay, what?" Willow asked.

Xander said simply, "I got a letter from Riley."

"WHAT?" four voices yelled at the same time.

"Hey, don't yell like that! Okay? Cordelia's still asleep in the bedroom, she hasn't been feeling too hot lately. Last night was a pretty bad scene, she was constantly running for the bathroom, so do me a favor and just keep the noise down," Xander ordered his houseguests in no uncertain terms.

"S-sorry," Tara apologized on behalf of the group. "But Xander, h-how did you get a letter from Riley?"

"Magic," he said. "It just showed up in a flash of light last night, around eleven."

"And you waited until NOW to tell me about this?" Buffy shouted, her ire evident.

"Buffy, I already asked you nicely not to yell in my home," Xander hissed at her, and his expression actually made Buffy take a step back. "And the reason I waited 'til this morning to call is that after I read the letter, I knew there was no point in not letting everyone get a decent night's sleep before you read what he had to say."

The others didn't get what he meant, and said so. Instead of explaining further Xander merely handed Buffy the letter. After she read it, the blonde Slayer looked like she wanted to cry as she threw the parchment away and ran out the front door. Willow and Tara exchanged a look and quickly ran after her.

Xander simply picked up Riley's letter, and gave it to the ex-Watcher to read.

* * *

**The Monastery of the Order of Dagon, Czech Republic, Europe**

**The same time**

Faith looked grim as she wandered through the ruins, the supernatural healing factor of her badly damaged body working overtime to try to get her back into some semblance of good health. As her fight against Glory had not gone well, and that was putting it mildly.

Going up against a god was something that not even the Chosen had ever been designed for. Faith had gotten her ass royally kicked within ten seconds of the insane hell-bitch noticing that she actually existed, but on the upside, at least she was still alive. Anybody else would have been turned into hamburger.

The curvaceous brunette was looking for any survivors before she abandoned the monastery and returned to the coven back in Devon. Miss Lehane wasn't optimistic about the chances of finding any of the monks alive, but as Fate would have it, she did stumble upon one lone survivor, badly wounded and dying though he was.

"Shit! Hold on, I'll get you outta here," the Chosen One said, recognizing the abbot and stepping forward.

"No. My journey's done, I think," the holy man wheezed out. "There are...more important things to do...in the short time I have left."

From the extent of his injuries, it was a miracle that the monk had survived the last three days without food or water and Faith was furious with herself for not getting here sooner. Even though she'd been unconscious and injured as well, all this time. "The Key?"

"Safe, for now. You have to...go. Find it. Protect it," the man croaked out.

"Okay, fine. But we can protect the Key together, right? Far, far away from here," Faith grimaced at the situation. "Come on, work with me here, pops. Try to get up..."

The abbot ignored her demand. "Just before the abomination found us, we hid the Key. Gave it...physical form, molded it into flesh...made it human. And sent it to..."

"Who? Who did you send it to?" Faith asked urgently, suddenly sure that the monk was going to die.

"God forgive us, but we should have done it long ago. We followed your idea," the abbot whispered, before he exhaled one last time and died.

"My idea?" Faith asked herself, before realization struck her like a lightning bolt.

Xander.

* * *

**The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California**

**A few moments earlier**

( _Dear Xander,_ ) Giles silently read Riley's letter to himself. ( _I hope this message finds you well in the year 2000. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to send it to you for a couple of reasons. One, first and foremost, I consider you a friend. And two, the person who sent it to the future for me couldn't be sure exactly when it would arrive, only that it would be within six months after I went through that portal; and I suspected that out of everybody in the group, you were the one who would most likely still be alive. So after you've read this letter, please give it to the others to read as well._ )

The Englishman was mildly miffed that Riley hadn't thought that as the oldest, he himself would have been the most likely choice of candidate to receive this letter, but he quickly buried that and kept on reading.

( _I'm assuming that you've all been wondering what happened after I chased Rayne through the portal into the past. We ended up in sixth century Wales, a place called Caerleon. Or Camelot, as it's more popularly known. Yeah, you read that right: Camelot. As in King Arthur, Excalibur, the Knights of the Round Table, everything._ )

Rupert had to take a deep breath, stunned. ( _Good Lord! That place actually existed? I always thought the legends were nothing but that, legends!_ ) He then frantically turned back to the letter and kept on reading.

Giles quickly learned many things; for example how Ethan and Riley had been taken prisoner and met the woman known as Morgan le Fay upon arriving outside the legendary stone fortress. How the blonde witch had smashed the crystal and killed Ethan. He also learned how Riley had managed to escape from the murder scene and become a hunted man for a very long time.

Giles paused in shock at that point. ( _Ethan's dead,_ ) he thought to himself. It took a while for that concept to truly sink in. ( _Bloody hell. Of all the ways I ever thought he might go out, that wasn't one of them. And the crystal's gone, too. What else happened?_ )

Rupert shook himself, and continued reading. He learned how Myrrdin a.k.a. Merlin had eventually found Riley, and upon being hit by the wizard's magicks, Finn had confessed who and what he really was to the half-demon mage. Giles started shaking in fear at this point, ( _Oh dear Lord, Riley, what have you done? If Myrrdin knew...if even that much changed, and the man sent messages to people in the future...we, we must be living in a totally different timeline right now! I can't even imagine what the ramifications of all this might be, right at the moment!_ ) Hands shaking, the former Watcher got on with reading the letter again, determined to learn everything.

( _We talked, and once he got the full story Myrddin offered to help me return to my own time. So I spent the next ten years looking for the crystal that had been stolen from him during that era, but it was a hopeless task right from the start. I may as well have looked for a needle in a haystack the size of Australia. Eventually I gave up and accepted the fact that I was stuck in the sixth century for the rest of my life. So as you might have guessed by this point, Xander, I'm writing this letter over thirty years after I first arrived in Caerleon. The year is now 537 AD, and the Battle of Cad Camlan is finally over; believe it or not, the current Slayer and I just watched four women carry off the mortally wounded Arthur to Avalon. That elixir of eternal youth which Rayne was after, it couldn't help him as funnily enough, that really was nothing more than a fairy tale. So I finally decided to take up Myrddin's offer to send this letter to you, before God decides to cap my pen forever as well._ )

Giles rubbed his eyes for a moment, and then finally entered the home stretch.

( _Xander, I know that you and the others will have been trying to figure out a way to bring me back to the future somehow, especially Buffy. Despite all the decades that have passed I haven't forgotten anything about her; her face, her smile, her wonderful caring heart. But I need you to convince her and everyone else not to try to bring me back any longer. Too much time has passed, and the young idiot who could barely even believe in magic back then – he hasn't existed for a very long time now. I still miss you, all of you, but the facts are the facts here. Myrrdin's crystal no longer exists, at least as far as all of you are concerned, and there's no way to bring me home without it. So please tell Buffy that I love her, but she needs to find someone else now. I'll be waiting for her when the time comes. Take care of yourself and everyone else, my friend. Riley._ )

"Really messes with your mind, doesn't it?" Xander's voice suddenly registered in Rupert's ears. "And it kinda looks like I was right all along. Riley and Ethan really were both part of history, long before they were ever even born."

"Xander, that's, that's not the point!" Giles said loudly. "The point is-"

"G-man, don't yell-!"

Cordelia stuck her head out of the bedroom. "Okay, that's it. Could you guys keep it down out here?" she demanded irritably. She patted her four-month pregnant belly which now contained the Key, courtesy of the monks. "The baby's been kicking my bladder all night, and I need to get some rest, God damn it!"

Cordy slammed the bedroom door shut. Then she opened up again and said to Xander, "Bring me a sandwich. Cheese, sour cream and a dash of corn flour!"

( _Damn weird pregnancy cravings,_ ) Xander grumbled to himself even as he went off to the kitchen to obey orders, Giles trailing behind him.

Xander, Giles and the rest of the gang had no idea though just how weird things would get once Faith, Glory and her minions arrived in town.

The End


End file.
